DOCKER(1) Docker User Manuals DOCKER(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

docker-container-logs - Fetch the logs of a container

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**docker container logs \[OPTIONS] CONTAINER**

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

The **docker container logs** command batch-retrieves whatever logs are present for a container at the time of execution. This does not guarantee execution order when combined with a docker run (i.e., your run may not have generated any logs at the time you execute docker container logs).

The **docker container logs --follow** command combines commands **docker container logs** and **docker attach**. It will first return all logs from the beginning and then continue streaming new output from the container's stdout and stderr.

**Warning**: This command works only for the **json-file** or **journald** logging drivers.

The **--since** and **--until** options can be Unix timestamps, date formatted timestamps, or Go duration strings supported by ParseDuration ⟨https://pkg.go.dev/time#ParseDuration⟩ (e.g. **10m**, **1h30m**) computed relative to the client machine's time. Supported formats for date formatted time stamps include RFC3339Nano, RFC3339, **2006-01-02T15:04:05**, **2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999**, **2006-01-02T07:00**, and **2006-01-02**. The local timezone on the client will be used if you do not provide either a **Z** or a **+-00:00** timezone offset at the end of the timestamp. When providing Unix timestamps enter seconds\[.nanoseconds], where seconds is the number of seconds that have elapsed since January 1, 1970 (midnight UTC/GMT), not counting leap seconds (aka Unix epoch or Unix time), and the optional .nanoseconds field is a fraction of a second no more than nine digits long. You can combine the **--since** or **--until** options with either or both of the **--follow** or **--tail** options.

The **docker container logs --details** command will add on extra attributes, such as environment variables and labels, provided to **--log-opt** when creating the container.

In order to retrieve logs before a specific point in time, run:

```
$ docker run --name test -d busybox sh -c "while true; do $(echo date); sleep 1; done"
$ date
Tue 14 Nov 2017 16:40:00 CET
$ docker logs -f --until=2s test
Tue 14 Nov 2017 16:40:00 CET
Tue 14 Nov 2017 16:40:01 CET
Tue 14 Nov 2017 16:40:02 CET
```

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

**--details**\[=false] Show extra details provided to logs

**-f**, **--follow**\[=false] Follow log output

**--since**="" Show logs since timestamp (e.g. "2013-01-02T13:23:37Z") or relative (e.g. "42m" for 42 minutes)

**-n**, **--tail**="all" Number of lines to show from the end of the logs

**-t**, **--timestamps**\[=false] Show timestamps

**--until**="" Show logs before a timestamp (e.g. "2013-01-02T13:23:37Z") or relative (e.g. "42m" for 42 minutes)

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**docker-container(1)**](/man/os/docker-cli/docker-container.1)

Oct 2026 Docker Community

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Document: docker-container-logs(1) from docker-cli 29.9.2-r0 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/docker/cli