[Bug]: Systemd user units show no logs

[ItsGlassPlus1]

System

linux

Architecture

amd64

OS version

Podman-Machine 5.8.0

Installation method

• Binary
• Source code
• Docker container

Description

In the "User journals" window I can see my user units (present in the .config dir), but when I press enter on them they all show "-- No entries --" in the Logs window. The odd thing is I can see them fine via journalctl. This same behavior is present with the user units created via quadlet

Unrelated, but what's the use of the "Unit service list" window vs the system/user journals?

[Lifailon]

The User journals list is populated with the command:

journalctl --no-pager -F USER_UNIT

In your case, when loading the journal, you use the command:

journalctl --unit container-prune.service --no-pager -n 10000 -p debug

If the message -- No entries -- is displayed, then journalctl from journald returns an empty list (similar to how it works in cli mode).

I previously didn't consider the --user switch in this context, this is likely the problem.

Unrelated, but what's the use of the "Unit service list" window vs the system/user journals?

This list only contains a list of services from systemd via systemctl with their running and startup status.

[Lifailon]

I think it's worth adding the output of the command used to load the selected log. This will make it easier to find problems in the future.

@ItsGlassPlus1 Perhaps you could suggest the best way to do this: adding the command to the status bar (at the bottom of the interface) or adding the --debug or --log flag and writing to a log file if needed for debugging.

[ItsGlassPlus1]

Ah, without the --user option journalctl does report no entries for the service yeah. I'd personally prefer a startup flag to print the command to the interface. By the way, user units don't appear in the unit service list window. Instead of making another window it might make more sense to add a hotkey to switch between system and user services/journals.

[Lifailon]

I think the approach to retrieving system log lists should be changed.

I'll remove the lists retrieved from journalctl and leave only the lists of all system logs (without filtering by service, as in the first window) and user units in the next window.

Additionally, the system log list from journalctl --no-pager -F UNIT stores a lot of old entries, which is redundant and loading such a list may take a long time on some systems.

[Lifailon]

I removed the old log lists retrieved from journad via journalctl and retained the ones that retrieve a list of system and user units filtered by type. For type filtering, I added the -U/--unit-type flag and a configuration parameter to customize the output for the unit list.

@ItsGlassPlus1 can you test this by building the application from source? This requires installing Go (you can use make build install).

[ItsGlassPlus1]

@Lifailon Works, great, the logs load! The user list is a lot cleaner now, I had thousands of scope units before.

[bjarnesc]

I just tried out lazyjournal for the first time and I unfortunately still have this issue when using v.0.8.6 .
The log shows e.g.
time=2026-03-23T11:31:18.748+01:00 level=INFO msg="/usr/bin/journalctl --unit=someService.service --boot=all --priority=debug --no-pager --lines=10000" action="Reading logs from user units"
The --user flag is missing and the log is empty.

[Lifailon]

@bjarnesc you are right, I see a mistake (changed the flag order when adding new ones) and I will fix it