This article provides the workaround to resolve the error 'error: could not open 'messages'' when a non-root user runs the 'show log messages' command.

The below error will be seen while the user 'test' tries to run the 'show log messages' command.

test@vSRX> show log messages

error: could not open 'messages'

This error is expected to be seen on the latest Junos releases because according to default log setting, logs are visible to root users or to the users with 'Maintenance' permission configured.

To resolve the issue, run the 'show cli authorisation' command and check whether the 'Maintenance' permission is configured for the user's class or not. If not, run the below command in configuration mode to configure the 'Maintenance' permission for the class.

set system login class test permissions maintenance

Please refer Permission issue for show log for more details.

2024-08-16 : Article Created

2025-06-28 : Added QFX to the categories.

2026-02-25 : Adding MX category & Publishing externally