Troubleshooting using log files

You can configure logging for IBM Z Open Editor to produce detailed logs that help troubleshoot problems by providing more information and traces of the editor’s activities. Enable logging through a user preference setting called zopeneditor.logger. In the VS Code Preferences editor, you can select from the available log levels: DEBUG, INFO (default), WARN, ERROR, and OFF.

Some log files are created by VS Code and require a separate setting to enable them. For example, VS Code can generate a trace of all language server client-to-server interactions, as documented in the VS Code Language Server Extension Guide. To enable this log, specify the user setting "<languageId>.trace.server": "verbose", such as"cobol.trace.server": "verbose". This log can help support teams analyze specific issues related to program processing during editing.

You can choose to include RSE API user and server logs in the export. This requires that an RSE profile is set as the user's default profile (zopeneditor.zowe.defaultCliProfile), that you have administrative privileges on the connected system, and that the RSE API version 1.2.5 or later. This feature is not supported for z/OSMF.

Zowe Explorer includes its own logging mechanism, which you can configure to troubleshoot issues when accessing z/OS resources. For details, see the Zowe documentation Troubleshooting Zowe Explorer.

After logging is enabled, the output of most logs can be found in two locations:

• In the VS Code Output panel, by selecting the name of the log file such as "IBM Z Open Editor", "IBM User Build", "IBM Z Open Editor MCP", "Zowe Explorer" and others from the drop-down list.
• A log file written to your disk, which can be shared with technical support (if entitled) or attached to an issue filed against the public issues repository on GitHub. The first line in the VS Code Output panel shows the absolute path to the file on your system.

Additional details for each log are provided in the table below.

Export all relevant log files for technical support

You can use the Z Open Editor Export Support Files command to retrieve all relevant log files for Z Open Editor operations into a convenient ZIP file that can be shared with IBM Technical Support.

1. In the Command Palette, select IBM Z Open Editor: Export Support Files.
2. A dialog prompts you to choose the directory where the ZIP file is saved.
3. A prompt asks if you want to download RSE API logs, which consists of RSE API server and user logs. If you choose to download them, you can optionally enter user IDs to collect logs for. If you do not provide a user ID, the user ID from the default RSE profile is used.
4. After a successful export, a notification displays the path to the exported ZIP file. If RSE logs cannot be retrieved, a warning message is displayed.

Review the log files

Use the log files contained in the exported ZIP file to troubleshoot issues using the information provided.

For example, when investigating why a specific include file was not found by the editor, the log file named "zopeneditor-<timestamp>.log" generated at the DEBUG log level can provide a trace of the editor’s activities. This includes locating ZAPP files in your workspaces, identifying the property groups used, and listing the directories the editor searches. You can review the log to see where the initial request for a specific file was made, the steps taken to process the request, and any errors that were reported. Because requests for all include files in a program are processed in parallel, each request is assigned a unique request ID. This ID helps distinguish concurrent events in the log.

Locate log files manually

If you prefer to locate the log files yourself either those exported using the procedure above or those generated in real time, you can refer to the list of locations below. The table also includes the names used to identify each log in the VS Code Output view.

Finding versions of all VS Code extensions installed

Enabling logging also provides information that technical support will be asking for. To retrieve it:

1. Ensure that your IBM Z Open Editor logger preference is set to DEBUG.
2. In the Output console window, select IBM Z Open Editor from the drop-down list. The following information is listed:
   • IBM Z Open Editor version
   • Editor platform and version
   • Editor Installation information
   • Java SDK configuration location and memory allocation
   • Key user settings
   • Zowe Explorer VS Code Extension version
   • Other VS Code Extensions visible

Finding Zowe CLI version and RSE CLI plug-in version

In the VS Code Terminal window, enter the applicable commands:

• Command for Zowe CLI: zowe --version
• Command for RSE CLI plug-in: zowe plugins list

Log levels

IBM Z Open Editor uses the log levels described in the following chart. These levels are listed in order of most to least detailed (with the exception of OFF, which turns off all logging). For example, the DEBUG setting will output detailed debug information as well as messages from the other levels below it: INFO, WARN, and ERROR. In contrast, the ERROR setting will only log important errors.