Comment by dataflow
17 days ago
> but... the log browser? So what, just download the file, at least the CI works.
They answer your "so what" quite directly:
>> Build logs look like terminal output, because they are terminal output. ANSI colors work. Your test framework’s fancy formatting comes through intact. You’re not squinting at a web UI that has eaten your escape codes and rendered them as mojibake. This sounds minor. It is not minor. You are reading build logs dozens of times a day. The experience of reading them matters in the way that a comfortable chair matters. You only notice how much it matters after you’ve been sitting in a bad one for six hours and your back has filed a formal complaint.
Having to look mentally ignore ANSI escape codes in raw logs (let alone being unable to unable to search for text through them) is annoying as hell, to put it mildly.
Doesn't `less -R` solve the ANSI escape problem?
No, it's insane to have to rely on that workaround. Having to download raw logs, bring up a terminal, go to that directory, and type less -R, is already a massive pain. All of that and you don't even get back a basic scrollbar.
And how do you expect people to even know about this workaround, and how to search for text with it? It's not like the GitHub UI even tells you. Not everyone is a Linux pro.
Nobody is saying it's impossible to get past the ANSI escape codes. People eventually figure out ways to do it. The claim is how much of your time do you want to lose to friction in that process, which you have to repeated frequently. It's insane for it to be this hard.
> Having to look mentally ignore ANSI escape codes in raw logs (let alone being unable to unable to search for text through them) is annoying as hell, to put it mildly.
You have a tool here, which is noted elsewhere: it's "less --raw". Also there's another tool which analyzes your logs and color codes them: "lnav".
lnav is incredibly powerful and helps understanding what's happening, when, where. It can also tail logs. Recommended usage is "your_command 2>&1 | lnav -t".