---
name: "vnl-ts"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "vnlog"
version: "1.40-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/vnl-ts"
---

# vnl-ts(1)

add a timestamp to a vnlog stream

## NAME

vnl-ts - add a timestamp to a vnlog stream

## SYNOPSIS

```
 $ read_temperature
 # temperature
 29.5
 30.4
 28.3
 22.1
 ... continually produces data at 1Hz
 $ read_temperature | vnl-ts -s %.s
 # time-rel temperature
 0.013893 30.2
 1.048695 28.6
 2.105592 29.3
 3.162873 22.0
 ...
```

## DESCRIPTION

```
  Usage: vnl-ts [-i | -s] [-m] [--vnl-field t] format < pipe
```

This tool runs `"ts"` on given vnlog streams. `"vnl-ts"` is a wrapper around the `"ts"` tool from Joey Hess's moreutils \<https://joeyh.name/code/moreutils/\> toolkit. Since this is a wrapper, most commandline options and behaviors of the `"ts"` tool are present; consult the [**ts**(1)](/ts/1.md) manpage for details. The differences from `"ts"` are

- •

  The input and output to this tool are vnlog files, complete with a legend

- •

  The format *must* be passed-in by the user; no default is assumed.

- •

  The given format *must not* contain whitespace, so that it fits a single vnlog field.

- •

  `"-r"` is not supported: it assumes input timestamps with whitespace, which is incompatible with vnlog

- •

  A `"vnl-ts"`-specific option `"--vnl-field"` is available to set the name of the new field. If omitted, a reasonable default will be used.

- •

  By default we call the `"ts"` tool to do the actual work. If the underlying tool has a different name or lives in an odd path, this can be specified by passing `"--vnl-tool TOOL"`

Past that, everything `"ts"` does is supported, so see that man page for detailed documentation.

## COMPATIBILITY

By default this calls the tool named `"ts"`. At least on FreeBSD, it's called `"moreutils-ts"`, so on such systems you should invoke `"vnl-ts --vnl-tool` `moreutils-ts ..."`

I use GNU/Linux-based systems exclusively, but everything has been tested functional on FreeBSD and OSX in addition to Debian, Ubuntu and CentOS. I can imagine there's something I missed when testing on non-Linux systems, so please let me know if you find any issues.

## SEE ALSO

[**ts**(1)](/ts/1.md)

## REPOSITORY

https://github.com/dkogan/vnlog/

## AUTHOR

Dima Kogan `"<dima@secretsauce.net>"`

## LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2018 Dima Kogan `"<dima@secretsauce.net>"`

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.