lnav
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 4 log viewers
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.
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.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Powerful for understanding logs
“lnav is incredibly powerful and helps understanding what's happening, when, where.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “GitHub Actions Is Slowly Killing Your Engineering Team” “a mini-ETL CLI power tool”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Sheets Spreadsheets in Your Terminal” Lightweight and effective
“it was extremely lightweight and effective”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Log File Viewer for the Terminal” “lnav seems to land at a reasonable middle ground.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Log File Viewer for the Terminal” Trusted for reading logs
“I use lnav where I trust the logs”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Log File Viewer for the Terminal” “lnav is just fine as it is”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Log File Viewer for the Terminal”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
High memory consumption
“The only breaking thing was a huge (almost bloated) memory consumption.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Log File Viewer for the Terminal” Not obvious how to use
“Need to read the manual I guess, not a big deal but it should be obvious for a log viewer.”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Log File Viewer for the Terminal” “there is no obvious way to exit”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Log File Viewer for the Terminal”
Other log viewers people recommend
The three most recommended other log viewers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lnavThis page | 14 | 3 | 82% | 5 | — | Approved |
| GoAccess | 8 | 2 | 80% | 5 | — | — |
| Log File Viewer for the Terminal | 8 | 2 | 80% | 1 | — | — |
| journalctl | 7 | 10 | 41% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
17 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“an excellent local log viewer if you allow TUIs”
“a mini-ETL CLI power tool”
“Need to read the manual I guess, not a big deal but it should be obvious for a log viewer.”
“lnav is just fine as it is”
“there is no obvious way to exit”
“I would just hope folks could have an open mind and give”
“it was extremely lightweight and effective”
“The memory consumption has never been a problem for me.”
“there are a fair number of very recent stack and heap overflows”
“I use lnav where I trust the logs”
“Really appreciate this way to demo it quickly, very nice!”
“lnav seems to land at a reasonable middle ground.”
“The only breaking thing was a huge (almost bloated) memory consumption.”
“I remember using it like a decade ago to monitor an array of web servers”
“There are some TUIs I quite like (LNAV as a pager)”
“The lnav itself provides the markdown support”
“lnav is incredibly powerful and helps understanding what's happening, when, where.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.