taill

A TUI log viewer with search, filtering, and real-time file monitoring. Watch log files as they update with syntax highlighting, level-based coloring, and powerful filtering capabilities.

Installation

Install from crates.io:

cargo install taill

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/zhangzhishan/taill.git
cd taill
cargo build --release

Usage

taill -f <pattern>

Examples

Watch all log files in current directory:

taill -f "*.log"

Watch with a specific log format:

taill -f "*.log" --format common

List available log formats:

taill --list-formats

Features

• TUI Interface: Full terminal UI with status bar, log viewer, and help panel
• Real-time Monitoring: Watch files as they update with automatic scrolling
• Log Level Coloring: Automatic detection and coloring of log levels (DEBUG/INFO/WARN/ERROR)
• Search: Filter logs by keyword with highlighted matches
• Level Filtering: Show only logs at or above a certain level
• Pattern Matching: Use glob syntax to watch multiple files
• Pause/Resume: Pause log ingestion to examine specific entries
• Vim-style Navigation: Familiar keybindings for scrolling
• Configurable Log Formats: Support for multiple log formats with custom parsing

Log Formats

taill supports multiple log formats out of the box:

Use --format <name> to select a format, or configure a default in the config file.

Configuration

taill looks for configuration files in the following locations (in order):

1. %APPDATA%\taill\config.toml (Windows) or ~/.config/taill/config.toml (Linux/Mac)
2. ~/.taill.toml
3. ./taill.toml (current directory)

Example Configuration

# Set the default log format
default_format = "indexserve"

# Define custom log formats
[formats.myapp]
# Regex pattern with named capture groups: level, timestamp, logger, message
pattern = "^\\[(?P<level>\\w+)\\]\\s+(?P<timestamp>[^|]+)\\|\\s*(?P<message>.*)$"

# Map level strings to log levels
[formats.myapp.levels]
debug = ["DEBUG", "TRACE"]
info = ["INFO"]
warn = ["WARN", "WARNING"]
error = ["ERROR", "FATAL"]

# JSON format example
[formats.myjson]
type = "json"
level_field = "severity"
timestamp_field = "ts"
message_field = "msg"

Pattern Syntax

Use regex with named capture groups:

• (?P<level>...) - Log level (required for level coloring)
• (?P<timestamp>...) - Timestamp
• (?P<logger>...) - Logger name
• (?P<message>...) - Log message

Level Mapping

Map log level strings to standard levels:

• debug - Debug level (gray)
• info - Info level (green)
• warn - Warning level (yellow)
• error - Error level (red, bold)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Status Bar

The status bar displays:

• Pattern: The file pattern being watched
• Format: Current log format (in title)
• Filter: Current search query
• Level: Current level filter
• Files: Number of files being monitored
• Lines: Filtered lines / Total lines
• Mode: [FOLLOW] when auto-scrolling, [PAUSED] when paused

Arguments

• -f <pattern>: The file pattern to watch (required)
• -F, --format <name>: Log format to use
• --list-formats: List available log formats
• --help: Display help information
• --version: Display version information

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Zhishan Zhang (zhangzhishanlo@gmail.com)