LNAV(1)                     General Commands Manual                    LNAV(1)

NAME
       lnav - log file viewer for the terminal

SYNOPSIS
       lnav [options] [logfile1 logfile2 ...]

DESCRIPTION
       The Logfile Navigator, lnav, is a log file viewer for the terminal.
       Given a set of files/directories, lnav will:

       - decompress as needed;

       - detect their format;

       - merge the files together by time into a single view;

       - tail the files, follow renames, find new files in directories;

       - build an index of errors and warnings;

       - pretty-print JSON-lines.

KEY BINDINGS
       ?      View/leave the online help text.

       q      Quit the program.

OPTIONS
       -h     Print help and exit

       -H     Display the internal help text.

       -I path
              Add the given configuration directory to the search path.

       -W     Print warnings related to lnav's configuration.

       -u     Update formats installed from git repositories.

       -d file
              Write debug messages to the given file.

       -V     Print version information.

       -r     Recursively load files from the given directories.

       -R     Load older rotated log files as well.

       -c cmd Execute a command after the files have been loaded.

       -f path
              Execute the commands in the given file.

       -e cmd Execute a shell command-line.

       -t     Prepend timestamps to the lines of data being read in on the
              standard input.

       -n     Run without the curses UI.  (headless mode)

       -N     Do not open the default syslog file if no files are given.

       -q     Quiet mode.  Do not print the log messages after executing all
              of the commands.

   Optional arguments:
       logfile1
              The log files or directories to view.  If a directory is given,
              all of the files in the directory will be loaded.

MANAGEMENT-MODE OPTIONS
       -i     Install the given format files in the
              $HOME/.lnav/formats/installed directory and exit.

       -m     Switch to the management command-line mode.  This mode is used
              to work with lnav's configuration.

       -C     Check the configuration and exit.  The log format files will be
              loaded and checked.  Any files given on the command-line will be
              loaded checked to make sure they match a log format.

EXAMPLES
       To load and follow the syslog file:

           lnav

       To load all of the files in /var/log:

           lnav /var/log

       To watch the output of make with timestamps prepended:

           make 2>&1 | lnav -t

AUTHOR
       This manual page was written by Salvatore Bonaccorso
       <carnil@debian.org> for the Debian system (but may be used by others).

                                  April 2024                           LNAV(1)