Adium

console.log

On Mac OS X, sometimes applications log information (such as error messages) to the console.log file. When you're having a problem, it's helpful to look here and see if there's anything relevant.

How to search the Console log

  1. Launch /Applications/Utilities/Console.app.
  2. Type “Adium” into the search field in the top-right corner of the window. (Most Console messages, including Adium's, have the application name attached for just this purpose.)

Reporting Console messages

In the course of diagnosing a problem you're having with Adium, we may ask you for Console log messages. This is easy: Simply perform the above steps, then select your findings, copy them, and send them to us.

Using email

Paste the Console log text directly into your email message to us. A plain-text attachment is OK, but we prefer just having it right there in the message. Don't use a pastebin site.

Using IRC

Never paste Console logs directly into the IRC channel; this is known as “flooding”, especially if the messages are many. Always use lisppaste or, if lisppaste is down, another pastebin.

More about the file itself

Note: Everything in this section has changed in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. It only applies if you are running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Contents

console.log is a plain-text file, maintained by the system. Its contents look something like this: 

2007-07-21 07:34:55.931 Adium[281] registerName: success!

This line has a date- and timestamp, the application name, the application's process ID, and the actual log message. Most lines in console.log have these items.

Location

The file is located at /Library/Logs/Console/UID/console.log, where UID is your user-ID number. You don't actually need to know your UID to find the file:

  • In the Finder, all the other users' UID folders are badged with a “do not enter” symbol (because they are not readable by you, so you can't enter them). Yours is the only one without such a badge.
  • Alternatively, launch Console, then ⌘-click on the filename in the title bar. A pop-up menu will come up, showing the complete path to the file. You can click on any of the folders listed there, or on the disk listed there, and it will open in the Finder. You can also see your UID here, since it is the parent folder of the console.log file.