Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#1

Post by iimpact » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 4:33 PM UTC

Looking for solutions out there, or recommendations for macOS. Specifically, static log files (structured JSON) that is easy to filter and has color coding (log levels).

What I am finding is that there are mainly "tail" type log viewers via the terminal, or cloud based. I'm looking for something local I can install.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#2

Post by cpach » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 6:58 PM UTC

I guess many people use Graylog, Splunk or similar web-based systems (which can be self-hosted if you like) and are content with that. Not sure if there are any readymade applications for using locally on your Mac.

Maybe you can hack something together with jq + Bash + awk etc?

These tools might also be useful:

https://kantord.github.io/emuto/

https://github.com/antonmedv/fx

Best of luck!

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#3

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 12:06 AM UTC

Graylog for centralized logging, jless locally.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#4

Post by iimpact » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 2:49 AM UTC

cpach wrote: post #2

I guess many people use Graylog, Splunk or similar web-based systems (which can be self-hosted if you like) and are content with that. Not sure if there are any readymade applications for using locally on your Mac. Maybe you can hack something together with jq + Bash + awk etc? These tools might also be useful: https://kantord.github.io/emuto/ https://github.com/antonmedv/fx Best of luck!

appreciate the info.. will check these out

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#5

Post by iimpact » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 2:51 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

Graylog for centralized logging, jless locally.

jless looks pretty awesome.. using lnav right now, but jless has a lot more pre-built json handling from what I can tell

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#6

Post by runjake » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 3:56 AM UTC

Graylog. It’s surprisingly quick and easy to get going. Here’s a good starter video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtfj6W5X0YA

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#7

Post by skinnymuch » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 11:53 AM UTC

Is http://www.logtailapp.com/ too simple or would it work?

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#8

Post by throwawayninja » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 1:39 PM UTC

Lame but powerful option: `tail -f /logfile.log | grep -A10 -B10 `. (prints 10 lines before & after search lines). The most powerful feature I've had in log management is the ability to search for what was interesting, and no tool can provide you a "this is interesting" button. If you've got performance concerns ripgrep is a drop-in grep replacement that's very fast.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#9

Post by iimpact » Fri, Apr 08, 2022, 6:23 PM UTC

skinnymuch wrote: post #7

Is http://www.logtailapp.com/ too simple or would it work?

How do you like this? I did come across it when I was searching

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to view logs?

#10

Post by tstack » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

The Logfile Navigator (https://lnav.org) is a TUI for viewing log files that can be configured to process structured JSON files. It has quite a few features, like filtering and color coding.

The documentation for writing a format file is here -- https://docs.lnav.org/en/latest/formats.html

The format file tells lnav what common fields are in the log messages and how to format them into plaintext for display. Here's an example configuration for JSON logs -- https://github.com/tstack/fullsail_lnav_config/blob/master/f...