---
name: "lnav"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "lnav"
version: "0.14.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/lnav"
---

# lnav(1)

log file viewer for the terminal

## 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).