Log Messages

As SEISMIC-RNA runs, it writes messages to the terminal (standard error) and to a log file. Messages are ranked by level from most to least important:

Level

Name

Used for

-2

Error

Problem causing all or part of SEISMIC-RNA to fail

-1

Warning

Abnormal event from which recovery is possible

0

Info

Major normal events: helpful for monitoring progress

1

Debug

Minor normal events: helpful for monitoring more closely

2

Trace

Finer detail: helpful for troubleshooting

Controlling terminal output

By default, Info (0) and more important messages appear in the terminal. Use --verbose (-v) to see more; --quiet (-q) to see less. Each additional -v or -q shifts the threshold by one level:

Flag

Shows in terminal

-vv

Trace and above (everything)

-v

Debug and above

(none)

Info and above (default)

-q

Warning and above

-qq

Error only

These flags must go between seismic and the subcommand:

seismic -v cluster out/sars2-fse

Log files

By default, messages are also written to a log file at:

./log/seismic-rna_YYYY-MM-DD_hh-mm-ss.log

Use --log PATH (between seismic and the subcommand) to choose a different path, or --log "" to disable log files.

The log file records messages at the same verbosity level as the terminal, so -v enlarges both the terminal output and the log file. Each line in the log file is prefixed with a timestamp:

2026-06-04 14:22:01.123456  Info      12345 Clustering sars2-fse / region fse

To view a log file, open it with less:

less -R log/seismic-rna_2024-04-08_15-20-09.log

The -R flag causes less to render the document in color (if the default colored log messages are enabled); without it, less just prints the ANSI codes for the colors, which makes the document harder to read.

To see new messages appear instantly as they are written to the log file, press Shift-F when less is open. Press Ctrl-C to stop the continuous updates, then q to quit less.