dlt-tui

A fast, keyboard-centric terminal viewer for Automotive DLT (Diagnostic Log and Trace) files.

Analyze AUTOSAR DLT logs directly in your terminal — no GUI needed. Works over SSH on test benches, in CI pipelines, and inside Docker containers.

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Why dlt-tui?

Pain Point	dlt-tui Solution
dlt-viewer requires a desktop GUI	Works in any terminal — SSH, CI runners, containers
Opening multi-GB DLT files is slow	Async streaming parser — starts displaying before full load
Finding the right log is tedious	Instant regex search + compound filters (Level × APP × CTX)
Compressed logs need manual extraction	Transparently reads .dlt, .dlt.gz, and .dlt.zip
Mouse-heavy workflows slow you down	Vim-style navigation — hands never leave the keyboard

Features

• Built-in File Explorer — Browse directories and open files without leaving the TUI
• Log Table View — ECU ID, APP ID, CTX ID, Log Level, Timestamp, and Payload at a glance
• Log Detail and Hex Dump — Inspect raw payload bytes for deep protocol analysis
• Color-coded Log Levels — Fatal (red), Error (light red), Warn (yellow), Info (green), Debug (blue), Verbose (gray)
• Real-time Filtering — Stack multiple filters to isolate exactly what you need:
  • / — Regex text search across payloads
  • l — Filter by minimum log level
  • a — Filter by APP ID
  • c — Filter by CTX ID
  • C — Clear all filters instantly
• Live TCP Connection — Connect directly to a running dlt-daemon for real-time log streaming
• Compression Support — Directly open .gz and .zip compressed DLT files
• Security Hardened — Zip bomb protection (500MB limit), terminal injection sanitization

Quick Start

Install from crates.io

cargo install dlt-tui

Or build from source

git clone https://github.com/tkmsikd/dlt-tui.git
cd dlt-tui
cargo build --release

Run

# Open file explorer in current directory
dlt-tui

# Open a specific directory
dlt-tui /path/to/log/directory/

# Directly open one or multiple DLT files
dlt-tui /path/to/log1.dlt /path/to/log2.dlt.gz

# Connect to a running dlt-daemon over TCP
dlt-tui --connect localhost:3490

# Typical ADB workflow for IVI development
adb forward tcp:3490 tcp:3490
dlt-tui --connect localhost:3490

Keybindings

File Explorer

Key	Action
j / Down	Move down
k / Up	Move up
Ctrl+f / Page Down	Page down
Ctrl+b / Page Up	Page up
Ctrl+d	Half page down
Ctrl+u	Half page up
g / Home	Jump to top
G / End	Jump to bottom
Enter	Open directory / Load file
b	Batch load all files in dir
q	Quit

Log Viewer

Key	Action
j / Down	Scroll down
k / Up	Scroll up
Ctrl+f / Page Down	Page down
Ctrl+b / Page Up	Page up
Ctrl+d	Half page down
Ctrl+u	Half page up
Left / Right	Scroll payload horizontally
Shift+Left/Right	Scroll payload horizontally fast
g / Home	Jump to first log
G / End	Jump to last log
Enter	Open detail view with hex dump
/	Search text (regex supported)
l	Filter by log level (F/E/W/I/D/V)
a	Filter by APP ID
c	Filter by CTX ID
C	Clear all filters
S	Save filter block to .dlt-tui.toml
L	Load filter block from .dlt-tui.toml
F	Toggle auto-scroll (tail mode)
t	Toggle delta time ($\Delta$t)
E	Export filtered logs to file
q / Esc	Back to File Explorer

Log Detail

Key	Action
j / k	Navigate between log entries
q / Esc	Back to Log Viewer

In any filter input mode, press Enter to apply or Esc to cancel and reset the filter.

Use Cases

ECU Bring-Up and Debugging

SSH into your target hardware and inspect DLT logs on the spot — no need to copy files back to your workstation.

ssh ecu-bench "cat /var/log/dlt/*.dlt" > combined.dlt && dlt-tui combined.dlt

CI / Test Bench Pipeline

Integrate log inspection into your CI pipeline. When a test fails, quickly triage the issue:

dlt-tui ./test-results/ecu_log_$(date +%Y%m%d).dlt.gz

Quick Triage with Compound Filters

Stack filters to isolate exactly what you need:

1. Press l, type W, press Enter (show warnings and above only)
2. Press a, type DIAG, press Enter (narrow to diagnostics module)
3. Press /, type CAN, press Enter (find CAN-related messages)
4. Press Enter on a suspicious log to inspect the hex dump

Roadmap

• Page-up / Page-down scrolling
• Horizontal scroll for long payloads
• Bookmarking and log annotation
• Saved filter configurations (.dlt-tui.toml)
• Multi-file / directory batch loading
• Timestamp delta display between messages
• DLT lifecycle and session tracking
• Export filtered logs to file
• Plugin system for custom decoders (SOME/IP, UDS, etc.)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

git clone https://github.com/tkmsikd/dlt-tui.git
cd dlt-tui
cargo test

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.