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.
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |