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Journalctl

Journalctl is used to query and display logs from systemd-journald.

Common Usage​

View Logs for a Service​

Shows logs for a specific service.

sudo journalctl -u <service_name>

Example: sudo journalctl -u caddy

Follow Logs (Live Tail)​

Shows the most recent logs and continues to print new log lines as they are appended (like tail -f).

sudo journalctl -fu <service_name>

Example: journalctl -fu caddy

View Kernel Logs​

Shows messages from the kernel buffer.

sudo journalctl -k

View Logs Since Boot​

Shows logs from the current boot session.

sudo journalctl -b

View Logs by Priority​

Shows logs with a specific priority or higher (e.g., "err" for errors).

sudo journalctl -p err

Limit Output Size​

Shows the last N lines.

sudo journalctl -n 50