Prepend timestamps option -t is no longer supported in v0.12.0-beta1

[lamchau]

lnav version

lnav 0.12.0-beta1-24-gc68b7ec

Describe the bug

In v0.11.2, we were able to use lnav -t to prepend timestamps to logs but in HEAD (c68b7ec) this option no longer works.

OPTIONS
    -t        Prepend timestamps to the lines of data being read in on the standard input.

Error

✘ error: invalid command-line arguments
 reason: The following argument was not expected: -t

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

• make 2>&1 | lnav -t is no longer supported

[tstack]

The time is always recorded for every line piped into lnav now. It’s stored in the file of captured output. In the TEXT view you can see the timestamp for the current line in the breadcrumb bar and you can press shift+t to show the time differences between lines. I felt that covered the functionality of the -t flag, so I removed it.

[lamchau]

ahh, thank you for the fast response! In v0.12 I can't seem to get the ISO format like we had in v0.11 - am I missing something?

v0.12

v0.11

[tstack]

Basically, I removed the functionality. Although, it looks like I should add it back, but in a different form...

I wasn't sure how often -t was used and I didn't like that people had to think ahead and remember to set the flag. I was also adding other functionality to run commands within lnav. So, I changed things around so that the timestamp was always recorded.

The main use I had for it was the time difference stuff and I didn't need the actual timestamps. But, it looks like the program you're piping into lnav is generating real log messages that you might want to merge with other log files. I'll see about adding a way to run a command to convert the text file to a log file (or maybe restore the -t flag to do that conversion).

[lamchau]

Yeah I'm not sure how many people use it but it's often something I show to my colleagues over the years and becomes their daily driver.

For now my workaround is to use a separate build but has the side effect of the timestamp parsing fix introduced sometime in v0.12.

Appreciate the work and fast responses! Thanks so much!

[tstack]

I've pushed a change to restore the -t flag, if you want to update and give it a try. I still need to add a separate command to convert a text file to a log.

Thanks for taking the time to file this bug.

[lamchau]

Thanks for adding this non-trivial fix in so quickly! Hopefully it wasn't too distracting from other features.

Just updated to and works like a charm! 🙏

[piotr-dobrogost]

The time is always recorded for every line piped into lnav now.

Out of curiosity – is the above no longer the case?
Wouldn't automatically recording time and using it as a timestamp if there's no timestamp detected in the input work?

[tstack]

The time is always recorded for every line piped into lnav now.
Out of curiosity – is the above no longer the case?

This is still true.

Wouldn't automatically recording time and using it as a timestamp if there's no timestamp detected in the input work?

Yes, this is what happens when -t is used now.