pgtail 0.7.2

pgtail

An interactive PostgreSQL log tailer. It finds the PostgreSQL instances on your machine, follows their logs in a full screen view, and colors and filters what matters while the log keeps running.

Documentation: https://pgtail.dev/

Install

dotnet tool install -g pgtail

pgtail is a native executable for Windows, Linux, and macOS on x64 and Arm64, with nothing else to install. The installation guide covers each method, upgrading, and shell completion.

Use

pgtail                           # The interactive prompt
pgtail list                      # The PostgreSQL instances it found
pgtail tail 0                    # Follow instance 0 in tail mode
pgtail tail 0 --since 1h         # Starting an hour back
pgtail tail --file ./server.log  # Any log file, or a glob of them
pgtail tail 0 --stream           # Print entries instead, for piping

In tail mode the log scrolls with vim keys or the mouse, and commands typed at the tail> input change what it shows:

tail> level error+        # ERROR and more severe
tail> filter /deadlock/   # A regular expression
tail> since 5m            # The last five minutes
tail> errors              # Error statistics
tail> clear               # Back to where tail mode started

The quick start walks through a first session.

What it does

• Finds instances from running processes, pgrx, PGDATA, and the usual Homebrew, Debian and Ubuntu, PGDG, Postgres.app, and Windows locations, and follows PostgreSQL to its next log file after a rotation or restart
• Reads text, csvlog, and jsonlog, from an instance, from files and globs, or from a pipe
• Filters by level, regular expression, time range, and csvlog or jsonlog fields, changed while the log runs
• Highlights SQL, durations, SQLSTATE codes, LSNs, locks, and more with thirty semantic highlighters, plus your own patterns, in six built-in color themes or one you write
• Reports error, connection, and query duration statistics, and flags slow queries by threshold
• Sends desktop notifications for levels, patterns, error rates, and slow queries, with quiet hours
• Exports the filtered entries as text, JSON Lines, or CSV, or pipes them to any command

Each of these has a page in the guide; the command reference lists every command and the configuration reference every setting.

Building

pgtail needs the .NET 10 SDK.

git clone https://github.com/willibrandon/pgtail.git
cd pgtail
dotnet build
dotnet test
dotnet run --project src/Pgtail

scripts/Publish-NativeAot.cs publishes the native executable for a runtime as the release does; see scripts/README.md. The documentation site in docs/ is built with pnpm: pnpm install, then pnpm build or pnpm dev. CONTRIBUTING.md has the conventions.

License

MIT