Alternatives to lnav
A terminal log file viewer that merges, tails, searches, filters and queries log files with SQL. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
lnav
A terminal log file viewer that merges, tails, searches, filters and queries log files with SQL.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as lnav.
less
A classic terminal file pager for reading text files and command output one screen at a time.
less is preinstalled on most Unix systems and pages through logs one screen at a time, but it lacks lnav's format detection, log merging and SQL queries.
ov
Read long command output with a configurable terminal pager.
ov is a configurable pager with search, column views and file-following modes that runs on Windows too, but it does not merge logs or support SQL queries.
Also worth comparing
These listings name lnav as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
tailspin
Highlight useful patterns in log files without a custom parser.
lnav goes beyond highlighting to merge, tail, filter and query logs with SQL through SQLite, but it runs on macOS and Linux only and takes learning.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Stern
A command-line tool that tails logs from many Kubernetes pods and containers at once.
sysdig
A Linux command-line tool for exploring and troubleshooting systems by capturing system calls, with container support.
VisiData
An interactive terminal multitool for exploring, cleaning and converting tabular data in many formats.
bat
Like cat, but with syntax highlighting, line numbers, Git markers and a pager when the file is long.
Glow
Reads Markdown files in a terminal with proper formatting, and finds them for you in the current directory or git repository.
ugrep
A grep-compatible file searcher with a text interface, Boolean queries, fuzzy matching and archive search.
