Log Time Machine (Ratatui)

Fast, glanceable terminal log viewer: keep your place while new logs stream in, filter the whole line, and hop through bookmarks without losing context. Built for everyday ops/debugging rather than a toy demo.

Features

• Tail live logs without losing lines: auto-pause when you scroll; resume with space/g. Default tailing starts at the end (live-only) for speed on large files.
• Whole-line filtering with live typing; toggle regex; clear in one keystroke.
• Level chips (INFO/WARN/ERROR) with strikethrough when disabled.
• Bookmark jumps with position display; timeline scrub with cursor/bookmark markers.
• Timeline bands colored by level mix for quick “what’s noisy?” reads.
• Baseline overlay: record a normal run and compare later with ghost timeline, drift markers, and token deltas.
• Built-in mock source so ltm works out of the box; file/stdin tailing for real feeds.

Quick start

• Watch the demo: asciinema cast
• Install: cargo install ltm
• Default mock (no setup): ltm
• Tail a file (default: from end, live-only): ltm --file <path-to-your-log>
• Tail stdin: cat <your-log> | ltm --stdin
• Record a baseline profile: ltm --file <path> --baseline-record /tmp/ltm_baseline.json
• Compare against a baseline: ltm --file <path> --baseline-compare /tmp/ltm_baseline.json
• Help: ltm --help

Controls (in-app command bar)

• Quit: q / Ctrl-C
• Pause/live: space, g/End
• Scroll: Up/Down/k/j, PageUp/PageDown, Home/End
• Timeline: Left/Right
• Filters: / to type (filter matches timestamp/level/target/message), Enter apply, Esc cancel, F/C clear, R regex, 1/2/3 toggle INFO/WARN/ERROR, n/p next/prev error
• Bookmarks: b add, ]/[ next/prev (status shows which bookmark you’re on)
• Help: ?

Configuration

Optional LOGTM_CONFIG or ~/.config/logtm/config.toml with max_lines = <n> to cap retained lines. Defaults keep memory bounded.

Development

• Run the built-in mock feed: cargo run (or make run-mock)
• Tail the included sample log: cargo run -- --file samples/sample.log (or make run-sample)
• Generate and view a live file (script produces the stream, TUI tails it): bash scripts/mock_log_stream.sh /tmp/logtm_live.log >/dev/null 2>&1 & cargo run -- --file /tmp/logtm_live.log

Troubleshooting (macOS)

• If cargo fmt/cargo clippy hits dyld/LLVM errors, prefer rustup first in PATH: export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"