A method for filtering and selectively displaying log messages generated by a network node with a distributed architecture is disclosed. In one embodiment, log messages generated locally on the line cards are collected by Secondary Log Managers residing on the line cards. The Secondary Log Manager appends meta data to the collected messages and transfers at least part of them to a Primary Log Manager process residing at the control module. Using the meta data, the Primary Log Manager can selectively output the logging and tracing messages interested Command Line Interface (CLI) shells or output devices.