I'm trying to log POST body, and add $request_body to the log_format in http clause, but the access_log command just prints "-" as the body after I send POST request using:
curl -d name=xxxx myip/my_location
My log_format (in http clause):
log_format client '$remote_addr - $remote_user $request_time $upstream_response_time '
'[$time_local] "$request" $status $body_bytes_sent $request_body "$http_referer" '
'"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
My location definition(in server clause):
location = /c.gif {
empty_gif;
access_log logs/uaa_access.log client;
}
How can I print the actual POST data from curl?
Nginx doesn't parse the client request body unless it really needs to, so it usually does not fill the $request_body variable.
The exceptions are when:
- it sends the request to a proxy,
- or a fastcgi server.
So you really need to either add the proxy_pass or fastcgi_pass directives to your block.
The easiest way is to send it to Nginx itself as a proxied server, for example with this configuration:
location = /c.gif {
access_log logs/uaa_access.log client;
# add the proper port or IP address if Nginx is not on 127.0.0.1:80
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1/post_gif;
}
location = /post_gif {
# turn off logging here to avoid double logging
access_log off;
empty_gif;
}
If you only expect to receive some key-pair values, it might be a good idea to limit the request body size:
client_max_body_size 1k;
client_body_buffer_size 1k;
client_body_in_single_buffer on;
I also received "405 Not Allowed" errors when testing using empty_gif; and curl (it was ok from the browser), I switched it to return 200; to properly test with curl.
