Kestrel

Interactive regex filter and text file viewer designed for log files.

Features

• Live regex filter (Hyperscan/Vectorscan) with PCRE2 capture-group highlighting
• Match counter (X of Y), next/prev match (n / Shift+N)
• Filter view: show only matched lines
• Time-range filter for parsed timestamps (ISO-8601, syslog)
• Log-level auto-tint (ERROR / WARN / INFO / DEBUG)
• Synthetic minimap with click-to-jump and viewport indicator
• Light/dark theme; configurable match/cursor colors
• Line-range selection: click + Shift+click (or Shift+arrows / PgUp / PgDn) → Ctrl+C to copy
• Go-to-line (Ctrl+G), copy/paste search pattern (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V)
• Recent-files list, drag-and-drop file open

In-app help: Help → Keyboard Shortcuts.

System dependencies

Debian / Ubuntu / Mint:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake pkg-config ragel libboost-dev libsqlite3-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libx11-dev libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev

Submodules

git submodule update --init --recursive

Third-party sources live under third_party/:

• imgui/ — ocornut/imgui
• ImGuiFileDialog/ — aiekick/ImGuiFileDialog
• glfw/ — glfw/glfw
• vectorscan/ — VectorCamp/vectorscan
• pcre2/ — PCRE2Project/pcre2
• doctest/ — doctest/doctest (vendored header)

Build

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j

Run

./build/kestrel

Test

ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

Bug reports

Logs go to stderr. Capture with debug verbosity and attach to the issue:

KESTREL_LOG=debug ./build/kestrel 2> kestrel.log

Valid KESTREL_LOG values: trace, debug, info (default), warn, err, off.