---
name: "i3-dump-log"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "i3-wm"
version: "4.25.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/i3-dump-log"
---

# i3-dump-log(1)

dumps the i3 SHM log

## NAME

i3-dump-log - dumps the i3 SHM log

## SYNOPSIS

i3-dump-log \[-s \<socketpath\>\] \[-f\]

## DESCRIPTION

Debug versions of i3 automatically use 1% of your RAM (but 25 MiB max) to store full debug log output. This is extremely helpful for bugreports and figuring out what is going on, without permanently logging to a file.

With i3-dump-log, you can dump the SHM log to stdout.

The -f flag works like tail -f, i.e. the process does not terminate after dumping the log, but prints new lines as they appear.

## EXAMPLE

i3-dump-log \| gzip -9 \> /tmp/i3-log.gz

## SEE ALSO

[i3(1)](/i3/1.md)

## AUTHOR

Michael Stapelberg and contributors