Notification files not created. What on earth is wrong with this code?

Configuration
1

I want to set up some files to receive notifications.

I copied and pasted the examples below from The Home Assistant documentation and another postings on this forum … and another.

Not a single log file is created. No error is reported in the configuration checker before restart and none in the log after the system is restarted. I did a full restart (several times), not just a quick reload.

I have stared at this for a long while but that is an ineffective debugging method (!).

What on earth is wrong with this code? Or what am I missing?

notify:
  - name: log_test
    platform: file
    filename: log_test1.txt
    timestamp: true
  - name: log_test2
    platform: file
    filename: log_files/log_test2.txt
    timestamp: true 
  - name: filed_notifications
    platform: file
    filename: filed_notifications.txt
    timestamp: true
  - platform: file
    name: critical_event
    filename: www/log_files/critical_events.txt
    timestamp: false
  - platform: file
    name: diagnostics
    filename: www/log_files/diagnostics.txt
    timestamp: false
2

Are the services created? I don’t think the file is created until the service is called the first time.

1 Like
3

just do it like here: How to forward all notifications to notify.file
and check the syntax carefully.

4

It has been a while since setting something like this up. But, I think I had to create the file ahead of time.

I might be wrong.

5

That is exactly what I did

6

Ah, that seems to be the crucial detail not mentioned in the documentation! Thanks. I ran a dummy automation to test it.

Now log_test1 works, but log_test2 (the one with the folder name in front does not. Is that syntax wrong?

7

you’ve got to try to understand the folder naming conventions, and where to use relative and/or absolute paths.

Not using the prefix slash tries to find the path relative to your current.

its safest to use absolute from /config/ … on and be sure

##########################################################################################
# Sensors for the filed notifications
##########################################################################################

sensor:

  - platform: file
    file_path: /config/logging/filed/filed_notifications.txt
    name: Filed notifications
    <<: &truncate_value
      value_template: >
        {% if value is not none %}
          {% if value|length < 255 %} {{value}}
          {% else %} Truncated: {{value|truncate(240,True, '')}}
          {% endif %}
        {% endif %}

and

notify:

# https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/file/#notifications
  - name: filed_notifications
    platform: file
    filename: /config/logging/filed/filed_notifications.txt
  #  timestamp: False
1 Like
8

I now have it working relative to config, which is what I wanted

Thanks all