toolkit bin/logs Script Fails to Display Logs on Host, Logs Only Accessible Inside Container Description

I am using the Overleaf Toolkit to deploy Overleaf Community Edition (CE) via Docker. When attempting to view logs using the bin/logs script on the host machine (e.g., bin/logs -f web), the output is blank. However, I can find and view the log files (e.g., /var/log/overleaf/web.log) inside the container's shell after executing bin/shell. This indicates that logs are being generated but are not accessible via the bin/logs script as expected.

This issue hinders debugging and monitoring from the host machine, as I must manually enter the container to access logs. I believe this could be a configuration or scripting issue with the Toolkit's log retrieval mechanism.

as6325400@overleaf:~/overleaf-toolkit$ bin/logs web
as6325400@overleaf:~/overleaf-toolkit$ sudo bin/shell
root@60fd7209b119:/overleaf# ls -l /var/log/overleaf
total 220
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    348 May 29 12:06 chat.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  22994 May 29 12:06 clsi.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    356 May 29 12:06 contacts.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    808 May 29 13:05 cron-deactivate-projects.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    404 May 29 12:20 cron-delete-projects.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    772 May 29 12:15 cron-delete-users.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   2868 May 29 13:00 cron-project-history-periodic-flush.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   3232 May 29 12:06 docstore.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    872 May 29 12:06 document-updater.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   3530 May 29 12:06 filestore.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   3856 May 29 12:06 history-v1.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1034 May 29 12:06 notifications.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    370 May 29 12:06 project-history.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    782 May 29 12:45 project-history-retry-hard.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    743 May 29 12:30 project-history-retry-soft.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10829 May 29 12:38 real-time.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   7102 May 29 12:38 web-api.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 121835 May 29 13:01 web.log
root@60fd7209b119:/overleaf#

May 29 '25 13:05 as6325400

Would you mind sharing the output of running bin/doctor? This would help with diagnosing the issue.

May 30 '25 09:05 mserranom

Would you mind sharing the output of running bin/doctor? This would help with diagnosing the issue.

====== Overleaf Doctor ======
- Host Information
    - Linux
    - Output of 'lsb_release -a':
            No LSB modules are available.
            Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
            Description:	Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
            Release:	22.04
            Codename:	jammy
- Dependencies
    - bash
        - status: present
        - version info: 5.1.16(1)-release
    - docker
        - status: present
        - version info: Docker version 27.5.1, build a187fa5
    - realpath
        - status: present
        - version info: realpath (GNU coreutils) 8.32
    - perl
        - status: present
        - version info: 5.034000
    - awk
        - status: present
        - version info: GNU Awk 5.1.0, API: 3.0 (GNU MPFR 4.1.0, GNU MP 6.2.1)
    - openssl
        - status: present
        - version info: OpenSSL 3.0.2 15 Mar 2022 (Library: OpenSSL 3.0.2 15 Mar 2022)
    - docker compose
        - status: present
        - version info: Docker Compose version v2.32.4
- Docker Daemon
    - status: DOWN !
====== Configuration ======
- config/version
    - status: present
    - version: 5.4.3-with-texlive-full
- config/overleaf.rc
    - status: present
    - values
        - OVERLEAF_DATA_PATH: data/overleaf
        - OVERLEAF_LOG_PATH: not set, keeping logs in container
        - SERVER_PRO: false
        - SIBLING_CONTAINERS_ENABLED: false
        - OVERLEAF_LISTEN_IP: 0.0.0.0
        - OVERLEAF_PORT: 9000
        - MONGO_ENABLED: true
        - MONGO_IMAGE: mongo
        - MONGO_VERSION: 6.0
        - MONGO_DATA_PATH: data/mongo
        - REDIS_ENABLED: true
        - REDIS_IMAGE: redis:6.2
        - REDIS_AOF_PERSISTENCE: true
        - REDIS_DATA_PATH: data/redis
        - NGINX_ENABLED: false
        - NGINX_CONFIG_PATH: config/nginx/nginx.conf
        - TLS_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH: config/nginx/certs/overleaf_key.pem
        - TLS_CERTIFICATE_PATH: config/nginx/certs/overleaf_certificate.pem
        - NGINX_HTTP_LISTEN_IP: 127.0.1.1
        - NGINX_HTTP_PORT: 80
        - NGINX_TLS_LISTEN_IP: 127.0.1.1
        - TLS_PORT: 443
        - GIT_BRIDGE_ENABLED: false
- config/variables.env
    - status: present
    - values
/home/as6325400/overleaf-toolkit/config/variables.env: line 41: email: command not found

May 30 '25 18:05 as6325400

I discovered that the reason bin/logs produced no output was because I didn't use sudo. The command at line 81 suppresses all errors using 2>/dev/null || true, which also hides permission denied messages. This made it harder to understand what went wrong.

Is there a reason why this line swallows all errors silently?

Jun 02 '25 09:06 as6325400