How to change size of logcat buffer in Android?

Question

I noticed that the size of the logcat buffer varies on different devices. Assuming I have root permissions on my device, is there a way to change the buffer size of the main

Answer 1

According to the newsgroup Android Developers, logcat buffer size:

The log buffers on the device are 64 KB. The timestamp, process ID, and log level are stored in a compact format, so you may actually get more than 64 KB of formatted data out of logcat -d -v <mode>.

Answer 2

See current buffer size

adb logcat -g

Set all type buffer size (main, system, crash)

adb logcat -G 16M # 16M can be replace by (128K ~ 16M)

Set specific type buffer size (main, system, crash)

adb logcat -b system -G 8M # system can be replaced with 'main' or 'crash'

Answer 3

You can increase the value of idea.cycle.buffer.size=1024 in property file android-studio\bin\idea.properties. This worked for me.

Answer 4

No, as per here it seems that the log buffers on the device are 64 KB. The timestamp, process ID, and log level are stored in a compact format, so you may actually get more than 64 KB of formatted data out of logcat -d -v <mode>.

See also Stack Overflow question What is the size limit for Logcat?.

Anyway, for saving logs elsewhere, you have Reading and Writing Logs. That maybe could help you.

Answer 5

"Logger buffer size option" in "Developer options"

It allows to change the size to a few values between 64k and 16M.

adb logcat -g then immediately shows the update limit.

Tested on 5.1.1, and this answer claims that it is a recent addition.

Answer 6

The buffer size is determined by the kernel, found in */drivers/staging/android/logger.c.

Which buffers are used and the size has changed with Android versions. Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and newer also have a system buffer, and all four are 256 KB. You have to recompile the kernel to change it.