I'm displaying the log output from nginx access log live in a terminal windows with 80 characters width and the words are warping making it look funny, this is the command I use: tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } Is there any way to limit the length of each line in the output to avoid warping?

Yes, the cut command will do that for you. Use it with pipes, like this: tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log | cut -c 1-80 if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } For reference, cut normally looks like this: cut -c 1-80 <file> if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } But with pipes | the output of the first command magically becomes the input of the second. GNU+Linux is amazing isn't it.

Awk with substr in a pipeline would work too: echo 'This is a test' | awk '{print substr($0, index($0,$3))}' if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } But cut definitly seems easier in this case.

Viewing logs in terminal, how do I limit line length of output

George_Hegland

I'm displaying the log output from nginx access log live in a terminal windows with 80 characters width and the words are warping making it look funny, this is the command I use:

tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log

Is there any way to limit the length of each line in the output to avoid warping?

Orson_Deforest

Yes, the cut command will do that for you. Use it with pipes, like this:

tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log | cut -c 1-80

For reference, cut normally looks like this:

cut -c 1-80 <file>

But with pipes | the output of the first command magically becomes the input of the second. GNU+Linux is amazing isn't it.

Alan_Rowell

Awk with substr in a pipeline would work too:

echo 'This is a test' | awk '{print substr($0, index($0,$3))}'

But cut definitly seems easier in this case.

Megan_Wilson

Awk seems more relevant for arrays, cut is better for strings.

Knut_Engstrom

Megan_Wilson Awk seems more relevant for arrays, cut is better for strings.

^^ This

Pepe_The_Frog

Thanks, this was very useful 👌