Features

Everything Log Lion 3.1 does, grouped by what you're trying to get done.

Built-in parsers

Event logs, ETW traces, firewall and IIS logs, CSV, JSON Lines, logfmt, HAR, BSON and SQL tables open as they are, with times, levels and fields recognized.

See the formats

Import wizard

Teach Log Lion any text format once. The wizard detects the time, fields and message, and matching files open directly from then on.

See how

Windows sources

Live event logs, .evtx and .evt files, ETW traces, the Windows Defender Firewall log and debug output, read natively.

See the sources

Color

The feature that makes Log Lion easier to read than Event Viewer or a text editor. It needs no setup.

Syntax highlighting
Numbers, quoted strings, name=value pairs, GUIDs, hex values and identifiers each get their own color inside every message.
Color by column
Every distinct value in a column you choose gets its own color. Color by thread, session, account or level and patterns separate into strands.
Highlight rules
Mark every match of a regular expression at once. Several rules can be active together, each in its own color, and saved as profiles.
Color a filter
Color what a filter matches instead of hiding the rest, so you keep the context around each match.
Indentation level and alternating rows
See nesting depth as bands of color, or shade every other row in wide tables.
Color in exports
Copies and exports to HTML and RTF keep the colors you see, ready to paste into a ticket or a report.

Windows sources

Log Lion reads Windows logs natively, live and from files.

Windows Event Logs
Browse the live Application, System and Security logs and other classic event logs, or open .evtx files collected from other machines.
Legacy event log files
Open .evt files directly, including files left unclosed by a crash or power loss.
ETW event traces
Decode .etl captures from logman, wpr, xperf and Performance Monitor into time, provider, event ID, level, process, thread and message columns. Traces are indexed on first open, so they reopen fast.
Windows Defender Firewall
Log Lion checks each firewall profile's logging settings and lists a source for every profile that has logging enabled.
Debug output
Capture OutputDebugString output live with timestamps, including from Windows services.

Files and databases

Structured formats open with their structure intact.

Web server logs
IIS and other W3C Extended Log Format files.
CSV, TSV and JSON Lines
With automatic detection of time columns and content-based file type detection.
logfmt, HAR and BSON
logfmt name=value logs, HTTP Archive captures from browser developer tools, and MongoDB BSON dumps with nested fields flattened into columns.
SQL databases
Read logs stored in a table in SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQLite or any database with an ODBC driver. Watch the video.
Custom text logs
Teach Log Lion any text format once with the Import Text Log wizard, then open matching files directly. Watch the video.
Compressed files
Open .zip and .gz files without unpacking them first.

Filter and search

Narrow millions of entries down to the ones that matter.

Filter language
Word and phrase search, column comparisons, regular expressions, variables and AND/OR/NOT logic, in an editor with syntax highlighting. Watch the video.
Saved filters
Keep filters in groups, reuse them, and share them with your team.
Search
Search any column with match case, whole word, regular expression and boolean word search.
Navigation
Go to a time, step to the next matching entry, move through row history, and bookmark findings.

Analysis

Answer questions about the log without exporting it first.

Timeline
See entry volume over time, so bursts and gaps are obvious at a glance.
Analysis tools
Histogram, subtotals, column statistics, a profiler for begin and end event durations, a word counter, and an unmatched-pairs finder for requests that never got a response.
Scripts
Run a Lua script over every entry to compute your own results. Watch the video.
Export
Save or copy entries as HTML, RTF, CSV or XML.

Safe and fast

Built for large files and for evidence you can't afford to change.

Read-only
Log Lion never writes to a log file.
Multi-threaded
Parsing, indexing, filtering and searching run in the background, so you can work with the first rows while the rest load.
Live logs
Follow growing logs with auto-refresh.
Time zones
Adjust displayed times for logs recorded in UTC or another region.

Enterprise extensions

The systems your services run on, read as logs. Built and signed by Regal Logic, and installed with Log Lion.

Docker
Every container in a compose project, or the ones you pick, from this computer's engine or a remote one, merged by time and followed live. Each container gets its own color, and JSON and logfmt lines open as fields. New in 3.1.3.
Connection files
Save As in the Open Docker dialog writes a .docker file that opens the same view again. Edit it to decode each service's lines with JSON, logfmt or a pattern, and to show their fields as columns.

See Docker in Log Lion

Extend

When Log Lion doesn't know a format, you can add it.

Extension SDK
A documented C interface for adding log formats and live data sources, with sample extensions and a tool that checks an extension before it is installed.
Safe loading
Log Lion asks before loading an extension from another publisher, shows its publisher and fingerprint, and remembers the answer against the file's SHA-256. Extensions signed by Regal Logic load without asking.