---
name: "docker-container-logs"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "docker"
version: "1:29.9.2-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/docker-container-logs"
---

# docker-container-logs(1)

Fetch the logs of a container

## NAME

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

## SYNOPSIS

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

## 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

**--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

**[docker-container(1)](/docker-container/1.md)**