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+# Enabling trace logs
+
+geckodriver provides different bands of logs for different audiences.
+The most important log entries are shown to everyone by default,
+and these include which port geckodriver provides the WebDriver
+API on, as well as informative warnings, errors, and fatal exceptions.
+
+The different log bands are, in ascending bandwidth:
+
+1. `fatal` is reserved for exceptional circumstances when geckodriver
+ or Firefox cannot recover. This usually entails that either
+ one or both of the processes will exit.
+
+2. `error` messages are mistakes in the program code which it is
+ possible to recover from.
+
+3. `warn` shows warnings of more informative nature that are not
+ necessarily problems in geckodriver. This could for example happen
+ if you use the legacy `desiredCapabilities`/`requiredCapabilities`
+ objects instead of the new `alwaysMatch`/`firstMatch` structures.
+
+4. `info` (default) contains information about which port geckodriver
+ binds to, but also all messages from the lower-bandwidth levels
+ listed above.
+
+5. `config` additionally shows the negotiated capabilities after
+ matching the `alwaysMatch` capabilities with the sequence of
+ `firstMatch` capabilities.
+
+6. `debug` is reserved for information that is useful when programming.
+
+7. `trace`, where in addition to itself, all previous levels
+ are included. The trace level shows all HTTP requests received
+ by geckodriver, packets sent to and from the remote protocol in
+ Firefox, and responses sent back to your client.
+
+In other words this means that the configured level will coalesce
+entries from all lower bands including itself. If you set the log
+level to `error`, you will get log entries for both `fatal` and `error`.
+Similarly for `trace`, you will get all the logs that are offered.
+
+To help debug a problem with geckodriver or Firefox, the trace-level
+output is vital to understand what is going on. This is why we ask
+that trace logs are included when filing bugs gainst geckodriver.
+It is only under very special circumstances that a trace log is
+not needed, so you will normally find that our first action when
+triaging your issue will be to ask you to include one. Do yourself
+and us a favour and provide a trace-level log right away.
+
+To silence geckodriver altogether you may for example either redirect
+all output to append to some log files:
+
+```shell
+% geckodriver >>geckodriver.log 2>>geckodriver.err.log
+```
+
+Or a black hole somewhere:
+
+```shell
+% geckodriver >/dev/null 2>&1
+```
+
+The log level set for geckodriver is propagated to the Marionette
+logger in Firefox. Marionette is the remote protocol that geckodriver
+uses to implement WebDriver. This means enabling trace logs for
+geckodriver will also implicitly enable them for Marionette.
+
+The log level is set in different ways. Either by using the
+`--log <LEVEL>` option, where `LEVEL` is one of the log levels
+from the list above, or by using the `-v` (for debug) or `-vv`
+(for trace) shorthands. For example, the following command will
+enable trace logs for both geckodriver and Marionette:
+
+```shell
+% geckodriver -vv
+```
+
+The second way of setting the log level is through capabilities.
+geckodriver accepts a Mozilla-specific configuration object
+in [`moz:firefoxOptions`]. This JSON Object, which is further
+described in the [README] can hold Firefox-specific configuration,
+such as which Firefox binary to use, additional preferences to set,
+and of course which log level to use.
+
+[`moz:firefoxOptions`]: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/testing/geckodriver/README.md#firefox-capabilities
+[README]: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/testing/geckodriver/README.md
+
+Each client has its own way of specifying capabilities, and some clients
+include “helpers” for providing browser-specific configuration.
+It is often advisable to use these helpers instead of encoding the
+JSON Object yourself because it can be difficult to get the exact
+details right, but if you choose to, it should look like this:
+
+```json
+{"moz:firefoxOptions": {"log": {"level": "trace"}}}
+```
+
+Note that most known WebDriver clients, such as those provided by
+the Selenium project, do not expose a way to actually _see_ the logs
+unless you redirect the log output to a particular file (using the
+method shown above) or let the client “inherit” geckodriver’s
+output, for example by redirecting the stdout and stderr streams to
+its own. The notable exceptions are the Python and Ruby bindings,
+which surface geckodriver logs in a remarkable easy and efficient way.
+
+See the client-specific documentation below for the most idiomatic
+way to enable trace logs in your language. We want to expand this
+documentation to cover all the best known clients people use with
+geckodriver. If you find your language missing, please consider
+[submitting a patch].
+
+[submitting a patch]: Patches.md
+
+## C-Sharp
+
+The Selenium [C# client] comes with a [`FirefoxOptions`] helper for
+constructing the [`moz:firefoxOptions`] capabilities object:
+
+```csharp
+FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
+options.LogLevel = FirefoxDriverLogLevel.Trace;
+IWebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(options);
+```
+
+The log output is directed to stdout.
+
+[C# client]: https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/dotnet/
+[`FirefoxOptions`]: https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/dotnet/html/T_OpenQA_Selenium_Firefox_FirefoxOptions.htm
+
+## Java
+
+The Selenium [Java client] also comes with
+a [`org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxOptions`] helper for
+constructing the [`moz:firefoxOptions`] capabilities object:
+
+```java
+FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
+options.setLogLevel(FirefoxDriverLogLevel.TRACE);
+WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(options);
+```
+
+The log output is directed to stdout.
+
+[Java client]: https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/java/
+[`org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxOptions`]: https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/java/org/openqa/selenium/firefox/FirefoxOptions.html
+
+## Javascript (webdriver.io)
+
+With the Selenium [JavaScript client] the capabilities object can directly be
+constructed:
+
+```javascript
+import WebDriver from 'webdriver'
+
+const driver = await WebDriver.newSession({
+ capabilities: {
+ browserName: 'firefox',
+ 'moz:firefoxOptions': {
+ log: { level: 'trace' },
+ }
+ }
+})
+```
+
+The log output is directed to stdout, or if geckodriver runs as a wdio plugin
+then the generated logs are part of the wdio log system.
+
+[JavaScript client]: https://webdriver.io/
+
+## Python
+
+The Selenium [Python client] comes with a
+[`selenium.webdriver.firefox.options.Options`] helper that can
+be used programmatically to construct the [`moz:firefoxOptions`]
+capabilities object:
+
+```python
+from selenium.webdriver import Firefox
+from selenium.webdriver.firefox.options import Options
+
+opts = Options()
+opts.log.level = "trace"
+driver = Firefox(options=opts)
+```
+
+The log output is stored in a file called _geckodriver.log_ in your
+script’s current working directory.
+
+[Python client]: https://selenium-python.readthedocs.io/
+[`selenium.webdriver.firefox.options.Options`]: https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/blob/master/py/selenium/webdriver/firefox/options.py
+
+## Ruby
+
+The Selenium [Ruby client] comes with an [`Options`] helper to
+generate the correct [`moz:firefoxOptions`] capabilities object:
+
+```ruby
+Selenium::WebDriver.logger.level = :debug
+opts = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Options.new(log_level: :trace)
+driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox, options: opts
+```
+
+The log output is directed to stdout.
+
+[Ruby client]: https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/rb/
+[`Options`]: https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/rb/Selenium/WebDriver/Firefox/Options.html