Logs: files location/names unclear
- Dominant language
- C++
- Stars
- 12.3k
- Forks
- 593
- Avg merge
- 2d 8h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 9
Description
CopyQ 14 and 15 stores its logs in `%APPDATA%/copyq/copyq/`. This is a strange subfolder name; logs would be more discoverable if it was named `log/` or something like that, or if they were directly in `%APPDATA%/copyq/`. However, CopyQ creates too many log files to do this currently. For 1 month of low CopyQ usage (mostly testing), I have the following 100 files:
```
dir *.log
Répertoire : C:\Users\cheal\AppData\Roaming\copyq\copyq
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 2026-03-12 18:57 1351 copyq-20260312-10684.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-12 12:13 490 copyq-20260312-11388.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-12 12:24 108 copyq-20260312-17292.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-13 07:51 2539 copyq-20260312-17676.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-20 10:56 3446 copyq-20260312-5484.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-13 12:02 3780 copyq-20260313-12552.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-13 22:24 540 copyq-20260313-28844.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-13 07:51 163 copyq-20260313-30616.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-14 08:06 379 copyq-20260313-34740.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-13 17:41 1018 copyq-20260313-5728.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-14 14:08 163 copyq-20260314-28512.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-14 13:12 2107 copyq-20260314-34264.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-16 14:15 4267 copyq-20260315-11308.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-15 22:51 163 copyq-20260315-31048.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-17 16:29 5347 copyq-20260316-28428.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-19 00:43 1836 copyq-20260318-10672.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-18 18:31 6372 copyq-20260318-30304.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-19 23:31 1891 copyq-20260319-36828.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-20 14:19 2539 copyq-20260320-12584.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-21 00:08 1620 copyq-20260320-32308.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-22 21:35 777 copyq-20260321-23916.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-22 21:35 11179 copyq-20260321-24140.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-24 19:32 12312 copyq-20260322-36932.log.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 00:39 1040 copyq-20260324-15012.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 11:47 6848 copyq-20260324-5160.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 13:17 540 copyq-20260325-14524.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 14:46 108 copyq-20260325-16032.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 23:38 108 copyq-20260325-18784.log
-a---- 2026-03-27 12:52 595 copyq-20260325-19740.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 13:10 540 copyq-20260325-20064.log
-a---- 2026-03-27 12:25 18900 copyq-20260325-26476.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 12:59 2268 copyq-20260325-34196.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 15:28 108 copyq-20260325-35184.log
-a---- 2026-03-25 13:51 107 copyq-20260325-7004.log
-a---- 2026-03-29 23:32 12528 copyq-20260327-18812.log
-a---- 2026-03-27 15:34 196 copyq-20260327-22972.log
-a---- 2026-03-27 15:30 333 copyq-20260327-23720.log
-a---- 2026-03-27 15:35 196 copyq-20260327-32712.log
-a---- 2026-03-30 00:31 5560 copyq-20260327-42000.log
-a---- 2026-03-27 15:29 674 copyq-20260327-44612.log
-a---- 2026-03-29 23:59 163 copyq-20260329-21280.log
-a---- 2026-03-29 20:21 108 copyq-20260329-37588.log
-a---- 2026-03-29 20:07 108 copyq-20260329-39028.log
-a---- 2026-03-29 12:24 83 copyq-20260329-39196.log
-a---- 2026-03-29 20:23 108 copyq-20260329-45848.log
-a---- 2026-03-29 20:16 216 copyq-20260329-47560.log
-a---- 2026-03-29 19:54 83 copyq-20260330-13540.log
-a---- 2026-03-30 10:00 2808 copyq-20260330-32496.log
-a---- 2026-03-30 00:31 326 copyq-20260330-35248.log
-a---- 2026-03-30 16:30 1836 copyq-20260330-46812.log
-a---- 2026-03-30 00:17 108 copyq-20260330-47740.log
-a---- 2026-03-31 08:08 324 copyq-20260331-18580.log
-a---- 2026-03-31 08:52 216 copyq-20260331-23132.log
-a---- 2026-04-01 12:44 6588 copyq-20260331-25452.log
-a---- 2026-03-31 08:59 599 copyq-20260331-29560.log
-a---- 2026-03-31 08:15 191 copyq-20260331-34048.log
-a---- 2026-03-31 08:59 107 copyq-20260331-5540.log
-a---- 2026-04-02 15:15 9072 copyq-20260401-33560.log
-a---- 2026-04-01 14:01 612 copyq-20260401-35324.log
-a---- 2026-04-01 14:02 191 copyq-20260401-50156.log
-a---- 2026-04-03 20:40 108 copyq-20260403-25532.log
-a---- 2026-04-04 10:20 648 copyq-20260404-14828.log
-a---- 2026-04-04 10:40 191 copyq-20260404-18252.log
-a---- 2026-04-05 20:27 2052 copyq-20260404-20088.log
-a---- 2026-04-04 09:47 83 copyq-20260404-29216.log
-a---- 2026-04-04 09:43 216 copyq-20260404-38436.log
-a---- 2026-04-04 11:05 216 copyq-20260404-39668.log
-a---- 2026-04-04 09:46 191 copyq-20260404-49072.log
-a---- 2026-04-04 09:18 191 copyq-20260404-52084.log
-a---- 2026-04-05 21:17 189 copyq-20260405-5608.log
-a---- 2026-04-06 10:34 7906 copyq-20260405-7752.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 19:29 91370 copyq-20260406-16444.log
-a---- 2026-04-06 17:22 4483 copyq-20260406-19120.log
-a---- 2026-04-06 19:15 163 copyq-20260406-25776.log
-a---- 2026-04-07 23:10 12367 copyq-20260406-26680.log
-a---- 2026-04-06 22:49 163 copyq-20260406-27844.log
-a---- 2026-04-07 07:41 271 copyq-20260407-19624.log
-a---- 2026-04-07 10:47 108 copyq-20260407-27840.log
-a---- 2026-04-07 12:10 108 copyq-20260407-28036.log
-a---- 2026-04-09 17:59 6421 copyq-20260408-34316.log
-a---- 2026-04-10 20:07 8473 copyq-20260409-23444.log
-a---- 2026-04-10 20:07 108 copyq-20260410-41864.log
-a---- 2026-04-11 16:33 2971 copyq-20260411-27388.log
-a---- 2026-04-11 22:35 1027 copyq-20260411-27412.log
-a---- 2026-04-11 23:43 163 copyq-20260411-35348.log
-a---- 2026-04-11 18:04 163 copyq-20260411-36004.log
-a---- 2026-04-11 05:01 163 copyq-20260411-38900.log
-a---- 2026-04-11 10:59 434 copyq-20260411-43652.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 22:04 108 copyq-20260412-10860.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 21:50 1135 copyq-20260412-19224.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 23:05 1182 copyq-20260412-19712.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 18:25 6319 copyq-20260412-24212.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 23:08 194 copyq-20260412-3060.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 21:37 107 copyq-20260412-3160.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 00:51 108 copyq-20260412-37944.log
-a---- 2026-04-12 23:49 1856 copyq-20260412-8912.log
-a---- 2026-04-13 10:06 1080 copyq-20260413-26600.log
-a---- 2026-04-13 00:30 178 copyq-20260413-26900.log
-a---- 2026-04-13 00:36 599 copyq-20260413-27836.log
-a---- 2026-04-13 12:31 324 copyq-20260413-29584.log
-a---- 2026-04-13 00:23 596 copyq-20260413-5556.log
```
This abundance has at least 2 causes:
1. Log rotation every startup
2. The abundance of warnings, and the high probability of an extra rotation for each.
The above shows 1 logging bug which was visibly fixed, and I suspect the current behavior remains partly buggy rather than fully intentional, but in any case, my expectations would be:
1. The active log to have a stable path
2. Either no rotation, or a logrotate-like behavior, with a maximum of 1 file/day unless a file reaches ~5 MB.
While each file's name clearly contains an ISO 8601 date, it is less clear what the last sequence of digits represents. Moreover, as the above exemplifies, the alphanumerical order is not necessarily chronological nor anti-chronological, which is unusual.
This makes log analysis complicated/confusing, as the following exemplifies:
```
$ tail -vf copyq-20260413*.log
==> copyq-20260413-12088.log <==
[2026-04-13 15:40:21.959] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 15:42:20.803] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 15:43:59.186] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 15:49:28.610] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 15:50:23.094] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 15:53:08.115] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 15:53:26.054] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
==> copyq-20260413-26600.log <==
[2026-04-13 00:48:48.679] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 08:47:34.068] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 08:48:03.437] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 08:49:33.842] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 08:52:09.153] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 08:54:26.529] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 08:58:08.297] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 09:27:45.082] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 09:31:02.928] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 10:06:34.929] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
==> copyq-20260413-26900.log <==
[2026-04-13 00:30:22.255] Note : Starting server: CopyQ 15.0.0
[2026-04-13 00:30:22.290] Warning : [default] QSystemTrayIcon::setVisible: No Icon set
==> copyq-20260413-27836.log <==
[2026-04-13 00:31:03.985] Note : Starting server: CopyQ 15.0.0
[2026-04-13 00:31:04.012] Warning : [default] QSystemTrayIcon::setVisible: No Icon set
[2026-04-13 00:36:38.263] Warning : [default] QWindowsWindow::setGeometry: Unable to set geometry 2560x1392+0+23 (frame: 2576x1431-8-8) on QWidgetWindow/"MainWindowWindow" on "BenQ PD3200Q". Resulting geometry: 2560x1369+0+23 (frame: 2576x1408-8-8) margins: 8, 31, 8, 8 minimum size: 89x87 MINMAXINFO(maxSize=POINT(x=0, y=0), maxpos=POINT(x=0, y=0), maxtrack=POINT(x=0, y=0), mintrack=POINT(x=105, y=126)))
==> copyq-20260413-29584.log <==
[2026-04-13 10:59:28.562] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 12:26:33.736] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 12:31:43.993] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
[2026-04-13 12:46:20.217] Warning : [qt.qpa.mime] Retrying to obtain clipboard.
==> copyq-20260413-5556.log <==
[2026-04-13 00:23:17.585] Note : Starting server: CopyQ 15.0.0
[2026-04-13 00:23:17.617] Warning : [default] QSystemTrayIcon::setVisible: No Icon set
[2026-04-13 00:23:30.503] Warning : [default] QWindowsWindow::setGeometry: Unable to set geometry 2560x1392+0+23 (frame: 2576x1431-8-8) on QWidgetWindow/"MainWindowWindow" on "BenQ PD3200Q". Resulting geometry: 2560x1369+0+23 (frame: 2576x1408-8-8) margins: 8, 31, 8, 8 minimum size: 89x87 MINMAXINFO(maxSize=POINT(x=0, y=0), maxpos=POINT(x=0, y=0), maxtrack=POINT(x=0, y=0), mintrack=POINT(x=105, y=126)))
```
Additionally, $ tail -f *; can get incomplete (“stop working”), as every restart creates a new file.
_Show Log_ avoids the complexity of paths, but it is only usable if CopyQ works, does not refresh automatically, does not allow search and does not show all logs.
[🅭🄍](https://www.philippecloutier.com/Common+infrastructure+licensing#its)
Contributor guide
No contributing guide indexed for this repository
Assessment
This issue has not been assessed yet.