# lnav

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/lnav/

12 people recommended lnav in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 12 months, in 7 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

6 of the 12 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Log File Viewer for the Terminal”.

**Verdict:** Terminal log viewer that helps show what happened, when and where, and is lightweight and effective. Critics mention high memory use and a non-obvious exit.

Summary written by Claude from 17 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Powerful for understanding logs (2 comments in the sample): "lnav is incredibly powerful and helps understanding what's happening, when, where." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46910443)) "a mini-ETL CLI power tool" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47661185))
- Lightweight and effective (2 comments in the sample): "it was extremely lightweight and effective" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47503867)) "lnav seems to land at a reasonable middle ground." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47499843))
- Trusted for reading logs (2 comments in the sample): "I use lnav where I trust the logs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501125)) "lnav is just fine as it is" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514276))

## What people warn about

- Not obvious how to use (2 comments in the sample): "Need to read the manual I guess, not a big deal but it should be obvious for a log viewer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47519163)) "there is no obvious way to exit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47504184))
- High memory consumption (1 comment in the sample): "The only breaking thing was a huge (almost bloated) memory consumption." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47499730))

## Other log viewers people recommend

- [journalctl](https://hackerapproved.com/p/journalctl/): 7 recommend, 0 mixed, 10 criticize
- [GoAccess](https://hackerapproved.com/p/goaccess/): 6 recommend, 2 mixed, 2 criticize
- [Log File Viewer for the Terminal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/log-file-viewer-for-the-terminal/): 5 recommend, 2 mixed, 2 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "lnav", https://hackerapproved.com/p/lnav/ (12 recommend, 1 mixed, 3 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 3 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.