frontail
Version:
streaming logs to the browser
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Markdown
# frontail – streaming logs to the browser
`frontail` is a Node.js application for streaming logs to the browser. It's a `tail -F` with UI.
[](https://hub.docker.com/r/mthenw/frontail/)
## Quick start
* `npm i frontail -g` or download a binary file from [Releases](https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/releases) page
* `frontail /var/log/syslog`
* visit [http://127.0.0.1:9001](http://127.0.0.1:9001)
## Features
* log rotation (not on windows!)
* auto-scrolling
* marking logs
* pausing logs
* number of unread logs in favicon
* themes (default, dark)
* [highlighting](#highlighting)
* search (`Tab` to focus, `Esc` to clear)
* set filter from url parameter `filter`
* tailing [multiple files](#tailing-multiple-files) and [stdin](#stdin)
* basic authentication
## Installation options
* download a binary file from [Releases](https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/releases) page (currently `frontail` doesn't work on Windows)
* using [npm package](https://www.npmjs.com/package/frontail): `npm i frontail -g`
* using [Docker image](https://cloud.docker.com/repository/docker/mthenw/frontail): `docker run -d -P -v /var/log:/log mthenw/frontail /log/syslog`
## Usage
frontail [options] [file ...]
Options:
-V, --version output the version number
-h, --host <host> listening host, default 0.0.0.0
-p, --port <port> listening port, default 9001
-n, --number <number> starting lines number, default 10
-l, --lines <lines> number on lines stored in browser, default 2000
-t, --theme <theme> name of the theme (default, dark)
-d, --daemonize run as daemon
-U, --user <username> Basic Authentication username, option works only along with -P option
-P, --password <password> Basic Authentication password, option works only along with -U option
-k, --key <key.pem> Private Key for HTTPS, option works only along with -c option
-c, --certificate <cert.pem> Certificate for HTTPS, option works only along with -k option
--pid-path <path> if run as daemon file that will store the process id, default /var/run/frontail.pid
--log-path <path> if run as daemon file that will be used as a log, default /dev/null
--url-path <path> URL path for the browser application, default /
--ui-hide-topbar hide topbar (log file name and search box)
--ui-no-indent don't indent log lines
--ui-highlight highlight words or lines if defined string found in logs, default preset
--ui-highlight-preset <path> custom preset for highlighting (see ./preset/default.json)
--path <path> prefix path for the running application, default /
--disable-usage-stats disable gathering usage statistics
--help output usage information
Web interface runs on **http://[host]:[port]**.
### Tailing multiple files
`[file ...]` accepts multiple paths, `*`, `?` and other shell special characters([Wildcards, Quotes, Back Quotes and Apostrophes in shell commands](http://www.codecoffee.com/tipsforlinux/articles/26-1.html)).
### stdin
Use `-` for streaming stdin:
./server | frontail -
### Highlighting
`--ui-highlight` option turns on highlighting in UI. By default preset from `./preset/default.json` is used:
```
{
"words": {
"err": "color: red;"
},
"lines": {
"err": "font-weight: bold;"
}
}
```
which means that every "err" string will be in red and every line containing "err" will be bolded.
_New presets are very welcome. If you don't like default or you would like to share yours, please create PR with json file._
Available presets:
- default
- npmlog
- python
### Running behind nginx
Using the `--url-path` option `frontail` can run behind nginx with the example configuration
Using `frontail` with `--url-path /frontail`
```
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
http {
server {
listen 8080;
server_name localhost;
location /frontail {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9001/frontail;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
}
}
}
```
### Usage statistics
`frontail` by default (from `v4.5.0`) gathers __anonymous__ usage statistics in Google Analytics. It can be disabled with
`--disable-usage-stats`.
The data is used to help me understand how `frontail` is used and I can make it better.