View your AWS CLI logs in Real Time (tail)

# How to tail your AWS CLI logs

To tail your CloudWatch logs in real-time, add the --follow parameter to the aws logs tail command. The command tails the logs for a specific CloudWatch log group.

By setting the --follow parameter, the command continuously polls for new logs.

The following example shows how to tail the logs of a lambda function using the AWS CLI:

shell

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aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow

tail aws lambda logs

The syntax of the command looks as follows:

shell

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aws logs tail "YOUR_LOG_GROUP_NAME" --follow

By default, the logs tail command prints the:

timestamp and timezone
log stream name
log messages

For a more readable version, set the --format parameter to short.

shell

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aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow --format short

aws cli tail logs human readable

The short version prints only the timestamp and the log messages.

The aws logs tail command also enables us to view the generated logs of a CloudWatch log group for a specific time period.

By default the command returns the logs from the past 10 minutes.

To return the logs from a specific time period, use the --since parameter:

shell

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# Display the logs from the past 30 minutes
aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow --since 30m

# Display the logs from the past 10 seconds
aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow --since 10s

# Display the logs from the past 3 hours
aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow --since 3h

# Display the logs from the past 2 days
aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow --since 2d

# Display the logs from the past 3 weeks
aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow --since 3w

You can filter which log messages the aws logs tail command displays to your terminal, by using the --filter-pattern parameter.

The following example only returns log messages that include the string Hello.

shell

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aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow --format short --filter-pattern "Hello"

aws cli tail simple filter

The following example returns log messages that include the string Hello OR the string END.

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aws logs tail "/aws/lambda/your-lambda-name" --follow --format short --filter-pattern "?Hello ?END"

aws cli tail or filter

To filter for multiple strings, simply prefix them with a ? character.

You can read more about the filter syntax for the aws logs tail command by going to the docs.

# Further Reading

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View your AWS CLI logs in Real Time (tail)

# How to tail your AWS CLI logs

# Further Reading

Borislav Hadzhiev