The best tools for working with logs

logs edition

Author

EDC
October 16, 2024

A handpicked selection of the best developer tools.

Here are the best tool picks of this edition. Visit the archive.

In this edition:

  • lodgy – Web based real-time log viewer

  • stern – Multi pod and container log tailing for Kubernetes

  • lnav – Log file navigator

lodgy - Web based real-time log viewer

lodgy

There’s no shortage of solutions for working with logs online—Sumo Logic, Datadog, and others dominate the space. But sometimes, while developing locally, you wish there were a better way to view your logs than just staring at a terminal window. That’s where lodgy comes in.

Imagine you're working on an app that outputs its logs to a local.log file. With lodgy, you can simply run lodgy local.log, and it opens a sleek web app that lets you view your logs as a live stream—just like you would with production or staging logs. It's a simple yet powerful way to make your local development logs much more manageable.

You can check out a live demo here.

stern - Log file navigator

If you’re working with Kubernetes clusters, you’re probably familiar with how tedious it can be to view logs—especially when you're dealing with multiple pods across different namespaces.

stern is a tool that every Kubernetes developer should have in their toolkit. It allows you to tail logs from multiple pods simultaneously, filtering by namespace, label, or pod name. This streamlines the process of debugging Kubernetes clusters and gives you a much clearer view of what’s happening across your infrastructure.

lnav

If you prefer to stay in the terminal but find the classic tail/grep/less combination insufficient for your logging needs, then lnav is the perfect solution.

lnav allows you to point it to a log file or directory, and it does the rest. With features like:

  • Regex search

  • Text highlighting

  • Message filtering

  • Automatic log format detection

  • …and more

lnav makes working with logs in the terminal far more powerful and efficient.

See you in the next edition 👋🏻