logcat-colorize

A simple program that colorizes Android Debug Bridge (adb)'s logcat output on a terminal window.

Notes:

• supports output formats: brief, tag, process, time or threadtime (see more about this in the official docs);
• works on Linux and Mac OS;

Installation

Snap

You can install logcat-colorize from Snappy: https://snapcraft.io/logcat-colorize.

sudo snap install logcat-colorize

Macports

You can install logcat-colorize from macports: https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/master/devel/logcat-colorize/Portfile

sudo port install logcat-colorize

AUR

For those running on arch, there is also a package here: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/logcat-colorize/

sudo pamac install logcat-colorize

DIY (from sources)

This depends on:

• libboost-regex
• libboost-program-options

If you are on Debian/Ubuntu:

    $ sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libboost-regex-dev libboost-program-options-dev

If you are on Mac OS X (using macports with libs installed in /opt/local):

    $ sudo port install boost

Compile and install:

    # download (or clone) the source
    $ make
    $ sudo make install

Usage

    # Help and version info:
    $ logcat-colorize
    
    # Simplest usage:
    $ adb logcat | logcat-colorize
    
    # Using specific device, with time details, and filtering:
    $ adb -s emulator-5556 logcat -v time System.err:V *:S | logcat-colorize
    
    # Piping to grep for regex filtering (much better than adb filter):
    $ adb logcat -v time | logcat-colorize | egrep -i '(sensor|wifi)'

    # Save logcat output to file and read later with logcat colorize.
    $ adb logcat > /tmp/logcat.txt
    $ cat /tmp/logcat.txt | logcat-colorize
    
    # List available formats, then set a specific format for debug messages.
    # Set in your ~/.bash_profile to make it permanent.
    $ logcat-colorize --list-ansi
    $ export LOGCAT_COLORIZE_MSG_DEBUG="^[4;44;33m"
    $ adb logcat | logcat-colorize

Note: I had written this as a quick approach in bash, but turns out it is pretty slow, specially pulling logcat from new devices (really a lot). So I decided to go a bit lower level and re-wrote this in C++. For reference, if you want to see the bash version, check out tag 0.2.0 (3f1486234a).