Debugging and UI

Waypoint includes several commands to support debugging and monitoring while developing your application.

Exec into the application container

Now that you have deployed your application, you can use waypoint exec to run commands in the context of the most recent deployment. Typically, waypoint exec will be used for running database migrations and debugging. However, you can use it for any purpose.

Use the exec command to open a shell prompt.

$ waypoint exec /bin/bash

Since you are in the deployment directory, you will observe that Waypoint automatically executes against the currently deployed application.

From within the Docker container, validate that this is the actual application by listing out the directory hosting the application's compiled files.

$ cd / && ls

You should observe an output that contains the file structure for the current deployment.

List the processes that are running in the container.

$ ps aux

Type exit to leave the interactive Docker session.

$ exit

View Waypoint application logs

In the application's directory, run the logs command to observe the running logs for your deployment.

$ waypoint logs

You will observe output similar to the following. These logs are from the existing deployment.

2020-09-24T06:20:18.162Z 2MGFF4:
2020-09-24T06:20:18.163Z 2MGFF4: > node-js-getting-started@0.3.0 start /workspace
2020-09-24T06:20:18.163Z 2MGFF4: > node index.js
2020-09-24T06:20:18.163Z 2MGFF4:
2020-09-24T06:20:18.383Z 2MGFF4: Listening on 3000

Press Ctrl-C to exit the logs command.

Access the Waypoint web UI

The Waypoint server includes a web-based user interface that you can use to view builds, deployments, and releases for projects and applications.

$ waypoint ui -authenticate

$ waypoint token new

Review the application metadata and associated operations and logs in the browser.