.. _cli:

Command Line Interface
======================

-h  Print these command-line options and exit.
-H  Start lnav and switch to the help view.
-C  Check the configuration for any errors and exit.
-c  Execute the given command.  This option can be given multiple times.
-f path  Execute the given command file.  This option can be given multiple times.
-I path  Add a configuration directory.
-i  Install the format files in the :file:`.lnav/formats/` directory.
    Individual files will be installed in the :file:`installed`
    directory and git repositories will be cloned with a directory
    name based on their repository URI.
-u  Update formats installed from git repositories.
-d path  Write debug messages to the given file.
-n  Run without the curses UI (headless mode).
-r  Recursively load files from the given base directories.
-t  Prepend timestamps to the lines of data being read in on the standard
    input.
-w path  Write the contents of the standard input to this file.
-V  Print the version of lnav
-q  Do not print the log messages after executing all of the commands.

Examples
--------

  To load and follow the system syslog file:

  .. prompt:: bash

    lnav

  To load all of the files in :file:`/var/log`:

  .. prompt:: bash

    lnav /var/log

  To watch the output of make with timestamps prepended:

  .. prompt:: bash

    make 2>&1 | lnav -t