tailspin is a terminal log file highlighter designed for inspecting log output in the shell.
It recognises common patterns in arbitrary log formats and highlights them for readability, making it useful for application logs, system logs, and streamed command output. It can read log files directly, work in pipelines, follow live output, and display results through less for interactive navigation.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Highlights common log patterns including dates, keywords, URLs, numbers, IPv4 addresses, UUIDs, quoted strings, file paths, HTTP methods, key-value pairs, pointer addresses, and Unix processes.
- Requires no setup or predefined log format, so it can work across many different kinds of log files.
- Supports theme customisation with
theme.toml, command-line word highlighting, and custom regex-based highlighters. - Works with files, standard input, and standard output, which makes it easy to integrate into shell pipelines.
- Can execute another command with
--execand show the captured output in a pager for interactive inspection. - Uses
lessfor navigation, searching, filtering, and follow mode, and also supports custom pagers and optional IPv6 highlighting. - Cross-platform support – runs under Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: github.com/bensadeh/tailspin
Support:
Developer: Ben Sadeh
License: MIT License
tailspin is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Command-Line Log Filters, Highlighters and Watchers | |
|---|---|
| tailspin | Highlights log output automatically without predefined log formats |
| hl | Filters, searches and highlights structured logs in the terminal |
| humanlog | Formats structured logs into readable, colourised terminal output |
| fblog | Formats and filters JSON logs using configurable fields and Lua expressions |
| Logalize | Customisable log colouriser with regex patterns and themes |
| swatch | Monitors log files and triggers actions when specified patterns match |
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