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tspin — A log file highlighter based on the `less` pager and basically behaves like any pager. More informat

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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thecommandhighlighterlogclifiletspinbased

Problem

How to use the tspin command: A log file highlighter based on the less pager and basically behaves like any pager. More information: <https://github.com/bensadeh/tailspin#usage>.

Solution

tspin — A log file highlighter based on the less pager and basically behaves like any pager. More information: <https://github.com/bensadeh/tailspin#usage>.

View a log file using the default pager (less):

tspin {{path/to/file.log}}

Read from another command and print to stdout:

{{command}} | tspin

Read from a file and print to stdout without paging:

tspin {{path/to/file.log}} {{[-p|--print]}}

Follow a file (mimics tail -f) and highlight new entries:

tspin {{[-f|--follow]}} {{path/to/file.log}}

Highlight specific groups only (possible values: numbers, urls, pointers, dates, paths, quotes, key-value-pairs, uuids, ip-addresses, processes, json):

tspin --enable {{urls,ip-addresses,...}} {{path/to/file.log}}

Use a custom pager (the [FILE] string is a required literal placeholder):

tspin --pager "{{bat -p}} [FILE]" {{path/to/file.log}}

Highlight custom strings with custom colors:

tspin --highlight {{red}}:{{ERROR,WARNING,...}} {{path/to/file.log}}

Run the provided command and view the output in less:

tspin --exec='{{command}}'

Code Snippets

View a log file using the default pager (`less`)

tspin {{path/to/file.log}}

Read from another command and print to `stdout`

{{command}} | tspin

Read from a file and print to `stdout` without paging

tspin {{path/to/file.log}} {{[-p|--print]}}

Follow a file (mimics `tail -f`) and highlight new entries

tspin {{[-f|--follow]}} {{path/to/file.log}}

Highlight specific groups only (possible values: `numbers`, `urls`, `pointers`, `dates`, `paths`, `quotes`, `key-value-pairs`, `uuids`, `ip-addresses`, `processes`, `json`)

tspin --enable {{urls,ip-addresses,...}} {{path/to/file.log}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/tspin

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