Output Formats

Choose HTML, text, binary, JSON, or raw CSV output and combine intermediate files

Categories:

Reference

2 minute read

Source: pinned upstream README.md, sections “Binary Format” and “JSON Format”, plus the generated command reference.

pgBadger selects output from the filename extension or from -x / --extension. Use -o / --outfile more than once to create multiple formats from the same parse.

Format	Typical extension	Best use
HTML	`.html`	interactive, human-readable report with charts
Text	`.txt`	terminal review and plain archival output
Binary	`.bin`	mergeable intermediate statistics and report rebuilds
JSON	`.json`	integration with other software; requires `JSON::XS`
Raw CSV	chosen output file	row-oriented extraction with `--dump-raw-csv`

HTML and text

The default output is out.html:

CONSOLE

$ pgbadger postgresql.log -o report.html

HTML normally embeds the scripts, styles, fonts, and report data needed for standalone viewing. -X / --extra-files moves shared JavaScript and CSS out of incremental reports; keep those assets beside the HTML tree.

Generate text explicitly:

CONSOLE

$ pgbadger -x text -o report.txt postgresql.log

Use - as the output filename to write a supported format to standard output.

Binary intermediate data

Binary output separates parsing from presentation. Generate hourly increments from one growing daily log:

CONSOLE

$ pgbadger --last-parsed .pgbadger_last_state \
    -o sunday/hour01.bin \
    /var/log/pgsql/postgresql-Sun.log

Merge one or more binary files into a fresh report:

CONSOLE

$ pgbadger -o sunday.html sunday/*.bin

When the server writes one log file per hour, create one binary file for each rotation, then rebuild the cumulative HTML whenever required:

CONSOLE

$ pgbadger -o day1/hour01.bin postgresql-2026-08-15_01.log
$ pgbadger -o day1/hour02.bin postgresql-2026-08-15_02.log
$ pgbadger -o day1/hour03.bin postgresql-2026-08-15_03.log
$ pgbadger -o day1.html day1/*.bin

Keep binary files from compatible pgBadger versions together. Read the release notes for incremental-format compatibility before upgrading a long-lived report directory.

JSON

JSON output is intended for programmatic consumers such as monitoring or reporting pipelines:

CONSOLE

$ pgbadger -o report.json postgresql.log

Install JSON::XS first. Add --prettify-json for readability when file size and generation time are secondary.

Raw and query-oriented exports

The command reference also provides specialized exports:

--dump-raw-csv parses the log and writes row-oriented CSV without building a report;
--csv-separator changes the raw CSV delimiter;
--dump-all-queries emits every query after replacing bind parameters;
--normalized-only writes normalized queries;
--query-numbering numbers query-oriented text output.

These modes may contain application SQL, identifiers, users, client addresses, or literal values. Review the output before sharing it and use --anonymize when the intended analysis does not require literals.