Option to output real JSON about node-bunyan

[weisjohn]

+1

[trentm]

Sorry to have ignored this ticket for so long. Busy yada yada.

FWIW, my json tool is pretty good for this. For example:

$ node foo.js 
{"name":"myapp","hostname":"banana.local","pid":10837,"level":30,"msg":"start","time":"2013-01-10T04:27:35.875Z","v":0}
{"name":"myapp","hostname":"banana.local","pid":10837,"widget_type":"wuzzle","level":30,"msg":"creating a wuzzle","time":"2013-01-10T04:27:35.876Z","v":0}
{"name":"myapp","hostname":"banana.local","pid":10837,"widget_type":"wuzzle","level":40,"msg":"This wuzzle is woosey.","time":"2013-01-10T04:27:35.876Z","v":0}
{"name":"myapp","hostname":"banana.local","pid":10837,"level":30,"msg":"done","time":"2013-01-10T04:27:35.877Z","v":0}

$ node foo.js  | json -gj
[
  {
    "name": "myapp",
    "hostname": "banana.local",
    "pid": 10848,
    "level": 30,
    "msg": "start",
    "time": "2013-01-10T04:28:33.193Z",
    "v": 0
  },
  {
    "name": "myapp",
    "hostname": "banana.local",
    "pid": 10848,
    "widget_type": "wuzzle",
    "level": 30,
    "msg": "creating a wuzzle",
    "time": "2013-01-10T04:28:33.194Z",
    "v": 0
  },
  {
    "name": "myapp",
    "hostname": "banana.local",
    "pid": 10848,
    "widget_type": "wuzzle",
    "level": 40,
    "msg": "This wuzzle is woosey.",
    "time": "2013-01-10T04:28:33.195Z",
    "v": 0
  },
  {
    "name": "myapp",
    "hostname": "banana.local",
    "pid": 10848,
    "level": 30,
    "msg": "done",
    "time": "2013-01-10T04:28:33.195Z",
    "v": 0
  }
]

If the bunyan-using emits non-Bunyan log lines, then you'll need to strip those out. bunyan --strict can do that:

$ node foo.js 
{"name":"myapp","hostname":"banana.local","pid":10981,"level":30,"msg":"start","time":"2013-01-10T04:31:44.517Z","v":0}
hi there
{"name":"myapp","hostname":"banana.local","pid":10981,"level":30,"msg":"end","time":"2013-01-10T04:31:44.519Z","v":0}

$ node foo.js | bunyan --strict -j
{
  "name": "myapp",
  "hostname": "banana.local",
  "pid": 10991,
  "level": 30,
  "msg": "start",
  "time": "2013-01-10T04:31:50.881Z",
  "v": 0
}
{
  "name": "myapp",
  "hostname": "banana.local",
  "pid": 10991,
  "level": 30,
  "msg": "end",
  "time": "2013-01-10T04:31:50.883Z",
  "v": 0
}

$ node foo.js | bunyan --strict -j | json -gj
[
  {
    "name": "myapp",
    "hostname": "banana.local",
    "pid": 11002,
    "level": 30,
    "msg": "start",
    "time": "2013-01-10T04:31:53.980Z",
    "v": 0
  },
  {
    "name": "myapp",
    "hostname": "banana.local",
    "pid": 11002,
    "level": 30,
    "msg": "end",
    "time": "2013-01-10T04:31:53.982Z",
    "v": 0
  }
]

Is that workable for you?

[weisjohn]

Thanks for the tip!

On another note, I think it might be helpful to show on the doc page how you can take an existing file and cat it to bunyan... Like:

$ cat my.log | bunyan

[trentm]

Noted. Leaving this ticket open to remember to add docs for this kind of thing.

[domenic]

I think ideally this would be integrated into bunyan as it's much more discoverable that way, but it sounds like there are definitely good solutions, so I'm OK either way. Especially if it's clearly documented.