Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

LNAV VS json-log-viewer

Compare LNAV VS json-log-viewer and see what are their differences

LNAV logo LNAV

The Log File Navigator (lnav) is an advanced log file viewer for the console.

json-log-viewer logo json-log-viewer

Powerful terminal based viewer for JSON logs using ncurses.
  • LNAV Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-04
  • json-log-viewer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-01

LNAV features and specs

  • Interactive Terminal UI
    LNAV provides an interactive user interface within the terminal, allowing users to browse, search, and analyze log files efficiently without leaving the command line.
  • Automatic Log Format Detection
    LNAV automatically detects and parses various log file formats, including those from syslog, Apache, MySQL, and many others, thus saving time and effort required for manual configuration.
  • Live Log Monitoring
    LNAV supports live monitoring of log files, making it useful for real-time debugging and continuous monitoring scenarios.
  • SQL Queries
    Users can run SQL queries on log data directly within LNAV, providing powerful and flexible ways to extract and analyze information.
  • Cross-Platform
    LNAV is available on multiple platforms, including Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD, making it versatile for various development and operational environments.
  • Low Resource Usage
    LNAV is lightweight, meaning it can run efficiently even on systems with limited resources.
  • Open Source
    LNAV is open-source software, allowing for community contributions, transparency, and free use in various projects.

Possible disadvantages of LNAV

  • Learning Curve
    Although LNAV is powerful, it has a steep learning curve for new users unfamiliar with its functionalities and command structure.
  • Limited GUI
    LNAV's interface is entirely text-based and runs in the terminal, which might be less appealing to users who prefer graphical user interfaces.
  • Performance Issues with Very Large Logs
    While LNAV performs well with moderately large logs, it may struggle with very large log files or require significant system resources to process them.
  • No Built-in Alerting
    LNAV does not have built-in mechanisms for alerting on specific log events, which means additional tools or scripts are required for comprehensive monitoring solutions.
  • Dependency on Terminal Features
    LNAV relies on specific terminal features and capabilities, which might not work consistently across all terminal emulators or remote environments.
  • Lack of Advanced Visualization
    Compared to some other log management tools, LNAV lacks advanced visualization options such as charts and graphs, which can make data interpretation harder for some users.

json-log-viewer features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    JSON-log-viewer is designed to be user-friendly, allowing users to easily load and visualize JSON-based log files without needing extensive configuration.
  • Improved Log Comprehension
    By visualizing logs in a structured format, JSON-log-viewer helps users quickly understand the content and identify patterns or issues.
  • Search and Filter
    The tool offers robust searching and filtering capabilities, enabling users to quickly find specific entries or subsets of log data.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source tool, users can freely use, modify, and contribute to its development, fostering a collaborative environment.
  • Platform Independence
    As a web-based tool, JSON-log-viewer is platform-independent and can be used on any operating system with a modern web browser.

Possible disadvantages of json-log-viewer

  • Limited Features
    Compared to some advanced log analysis tools, JSON-log-viewer's feature set might be limited, potentially requiring additional tools for more complex analysis.
  • Performance
    Handling very large log files can impact performance, possibly resulting in slow loading times or lag while interacting with the log data.
  • Dependency on Browser
    As it is a web-based tool, a user must rely on a browser, which may not be preferred in all environments, especially where web access is restricted.
  • Documentation
    While functional, the documentation may not be as comprehensive, making it harder for new users to fully utilize all features without additional support.

LNAV videos

LNAV: Easy Color Coded Real Time Log File Viewer for Linux

json-log-viewer videos

No json-log-viewer videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to LNAV and json-log-viewer)
Monitoring Tools
81 81%
19% 19
Log Management
77 77%
23% 23
Developer Tools
67 67%
33% 33
Realtime Analytics
72 72%
28% 28

User comments

Share your experience with using LNAV and json-log-viewer. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare LNAV and json-log-viewer

LNAV Reviews

Best Log Management Tools: Useful Tools for Log Management, Monitoring, Analytics, and More
If Enterprise-level log management tool is overwhelming you by now, you may want to look into LNAV — an advanced log data manager intended to be used by smaller-scale IT teams. With direct terminal integration, it can stream log data as it is incoming in real-time. You don’t have to worry about setting anything up or even getting an extra server; it all happens live on your...
Source: stackify.com

json-log-viewer Reviews

We have no reviews of json-log-viewer yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, LNAV seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 62 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

LNAV mentions (62)

  • SQLite: 35% Faster Than the Filesystem
    There’s a tool called lnav that will parse logfiles into a temporary SQLite database and allows to analyse them using SQL features: https://lnav.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • ht: Headless Terminal
    As others have kinda alluded to, it could be useful for testing TUI applications. I develop a logfile viewer for the terminal (https://lnav.org) and have a similar application[1] for testing, but it's a bit flaky. It produces/checks snapshots like [2]. I think the problems I run into are more around different versions of ncurses producing slightly different outputs. [1] - - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
    The Logfile Navigator (https://lnav.org) is a log file viewer/merger/tailer for the terminal. It has some advanced UX features, like showing previews of operations and displaying context sensitive help. For example, the preview for filtering out logs by regex is to highlight the lines that will be hidden in red. This can make crafting the right regex a bit easier since the preview updates as you type. lnav... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Angle-grinder: Slice and dice logs on the command line
    See https://lnav.org for a powerful mini-ETL CLI power tool; it embeds SQLite, supports ~every format, has great UX and easily handles a few million rows at a time. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Toolong: Terminal application to view, tail, merge, and search log files
    The code base seems like a good reference as a small Python project. My fav option in this class of apps: https://lnav.org/ It lets you use journalctl with pipes as requested here: https://github.com/Textualize/toolong/issues/4. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

json-log-viewer mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of json-log-viewer yet. Tracking of json-log-viewer recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing LNAV and json-log-viewer, you can also consider the following products

BareTail - BareTail is a real-time log file monitoring tool. Features Real-time file viewing

glogg - glogg is a multi-platform GUI application to browse and search through long or complex log files.

klogg - klogg is the fork of glogg - the fast, smart log explorer.

GoAccess - Open source real-time web log analyzer and interactive viewer that runs in a terminal in *nix...

LogViewPlus - Looking for a better log viewer? LogViewPlus is a professional log file viewer that can parse, read, tail, merge and analyze log files in any format. Remote log files (SFTP) and large files are supported. Easy configuration.

Superintendent.app - Superintendent.app is a Desktop app that enables you to write SQL on CSV files.