Setting log level for topics with spaces does not work

[jakubgs]

Describe the bug
When attempting to reduce noise from topics with spaces in the name like libp2p gossipsub the settings like this:

log-level = "debug;info:libp2p gossipsub,libp2p identify,libp2p pubsub,libp2p pubsubpeer,libp2p switch"

Results in warnings about log format option parsing:

WRN 2026-02-02 13:48:37.003+00:00 Unrecognized logging topic                 topic="libp2p gossipsub"
WRN 2026-02-02 13:48:37.003+00:00 Unrecognized logging topic                 topic="libp2p pubsub"
WRN 2026-02-02 13:48:37.003+00:00 Unrecognized logging topic                 topic="libp2p identify"
WRN 2026-02-02 13:48:37.003+00:00 Unrecognized logging topic                 topic="libp2p dialer"
WRN 2026-02-02 13:48:37.003+00:00 Unrecognized logging topic                 topic="libp2p switch"

Surprisingly, through trial and error it was discovered that removing the libp2p prefix works:

log-level = "debug;info:dialer,gossipsub,identify,libp2p,pubsub,pubsubpeer,switch"

Which looks like a bug, at least in the sense that someone might want to silence libp2p dialer but not xyz dialer, but the above setting might affect both.

[arnetheduck]

topics with spaces

those are two separate topics

[jakubgs]

If they are separate topics why does changing log level for libp2p does not change it for libp2p gossipsub for example?

jakubgs@geth-01.ih-eu-mda1.nimbus.hoodi:~ % sudo grep log-level /data/beacon-node-hoodi-stable/conf/config.toml     
log-level = "debug;info:libp2p"
jakubgs@geth-01.ih-eu-mda1.nimbus.hoodi:~ % tail -n1000 /var/log/service/beacon-node-hoodi-stable/service.log | grep 'libp2p gossipsub' | wc -l
172

[arnetheduck]

If they are separate topics why does changing log level for libp2p does not change it for libp2p gossipsub for example?

did you try changing both libp2p and gossip? it might be using the more permissive of the two, I don't remember the details

[jakubgs]

The way it works is that just using gossip alone does not work, it needs to be combined with lip2p:

jakubgs@geth-01.ih-eu-mda1.nimbus.hoodi:~ % sudo grep log-level /data/beacon-node-hoodi-stable/conf/config.toml
log-level = "debug;info:libp2p,gossipsub"
jakubgs@geth-01.ih-eu-mda1.nimbus.hoodi:~ % tail -n1000 /var/log/service/beacon-node-hoodi-stable/service.log | grep 'libp2p gossipsub' | wc -l
0

And same goes for every other topic like pubsubpeer or switch. Which means all the topics need to be matched, not just one, like a tag or a label would be in any normal search. It means I can't just change log level of all libp2p logs, I have to list every single topic used with libp2p to change the log level of all of those.

[jakubgs]

I will move this issue to nim-chronicles repo.