How to generate a JSON log from nginx?

Question

I\'m trying to generate a JSON log from nginx.

I\'m aware of solutions like this one but some of the fields I want to log include user generated input (like HTTP hea

Answer 1

Finally it looks like we have good way to do this with vanilla nginx without any modules. Just define:

log_format json_combined escape=json
  '{'
    '"time_local":"$time_local",'
    '"remote_addr":"$remote_addr",'
    '"remote_user":"$remote_user",'
    '"request":"$request",'
    '"status": "$status",'
    '"body_bytes_sent":"$body_bytes_sent",'
    '"request_time":"$request_time",'
    '"http_referrer":"$http_referer",'
    '"http_user_agent":"$http_user_agent"'
  '}';

Note that escape=json was added in nginx 1.11.8. http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_log_module.html#log_format

Answer 2

You can try to use that one https://github.com/jiaz/nginx-http-json-log - addition module for Nginx.

Answer 3

You can try to use:

• addition module for Nginx nginx-http-json-log

• Use any language as done in nginx-json-logformat with example /etc/nginx/conf.d/json_log.conf

• A version of the Nginx HTTP stub status module that outputs in JSON format

PS: The if parameter (1.7.0) enables conditional logging. A request will not be logged if the condition evaluates to “0” or an empty string:

map $status $http_referer{
    ~\xXX  0;
    default 1;
}

access_log /path/to/access.log combined if=$http_referer;

It’s a good idea to use a tool such as https://github.com/zaach/jsonlint to check your JSON data. You can test the output of your new logging format and make sure it’s real-and-proper JSON.