From 82d6b6b8457bae201767e87d3034519a166b3ec6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Gold856 <117957790+Gold856@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:25:54 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Make exported journalctl logs less verbose and always display
 everything (#2101)

## Description

There was a recent occurance of journalctl logs saying something like
`[66B blob data]`. We don't log anything binary, so journalctl might be
hiding some lines, thinking they're actually binary data when they're
actually plain text. Use `-a` to always log everything. If it's binary
data anyways, we'll want to know what it is anyways. Use `--output cat`
because we output our own timestamps and we don't want journalctl's own
timestamping. Filter the output through `sed` to remove ANSI color codes
to make reading logs easier.

## Meta

Merge checklist:
- [x] Pull Request title is [short, imperative
summary](https://cbea.ms/git-commit/) of proposed changes
- [x] The description documents the _what_ and _why_
- [x] If this PR changes behavior or adds a feature, user documentation
is updated
- [ ] If this PR touches photon-serde, all messages have been
regenerated and hashes have not changed unexpectedly
- [ ] If this PR touches configuration, this is backwards compatible
with settings back to v2025.3.2
- [ ] If this PR touches pipeline settings or anything related to data
exchange, the frontend typing is updated
- [ ] If this PR addresses a bug, a regression test for it is added
---
 docs/source/docs/troubleshooting/unix-commands.md           | 6 ++++--
 .../main/java/org/photonvision/server/RequestHandler.java   | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/source/docs/troubleshooting/unix-commands.md b/docs/source/docs/troubleshooting/unix-commands.md
index 4f8e5e3fd..252df1df7 100644
--- a/docs/source/docs/troubleshooting/unix-commands.md
+++ b/docs/source/docs/troubleshooting/unix-commands.md
@@ -122,11 +122,13 @@ systemctl status photonvision
 View the PhotonVision logs:
 
 ```
-journalctl -u photonvision
+journalctl --output cat -u photonvision
 ```
 
 View the PhotonVision logs in real-time:
 
 ```
-journalctl -u photonvision -f
+journalctl --output cat -u photonvision -f
 ```
+
+`--output cat` is used to prevent journalctl from printing its own timestamps, because we log our own timestamps.
diff --git a/photon-server/src/main/java/org/photonvision/server/RequestHandler.java b/photon-server/src/main/java/org/photonvision/server/RequestHandler.java
index fbc7151d4..d3ab08adb 100644
--- a/photon-server/src/main/java/org/photonvision/server/RequestHandler.java
+++ b/photon-server/src/main/java/org/photonvision/server/RequestHandler.java
@@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ public class RequestHandler {
             // dmesg = output all kernel logs since current boot
             // cat /var/log/kern.log = output all kernel logs since first boot
             shell.executeBashCommand(
-                    "journalctl -u photonvision.service > "
+                    "journalctl -a --output cat -u photonvision.service | sed -E 's/\\x1B\\[(0|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37)m//g' >"
                             + tempPath.toAbsolutePath()
                             + " && dmesg > "
                             + tempPath2.toAbsolutePath());