LogMagnifier

A powerful log analysis tool for Visual Studio Code, featuring advanced log filtering and diverse highlighting options.

Features

• Filter Groups: Organize your analysis with named groups of filters.
• Include/Exclude Logic:
  • Include: Keep and highlight lines containing specific keywords.
  • Exclude: Remove lines containing specific keywords (highest priority) and display matches with a strike-through or hide them completely.
• Match Counts: Real-time count of keyword occurrences displayed in the sidebar.
• Search Navigation: Quickly navigate between matches using Previous/Next buttons in the sidebar.
• Highlighting: Automatically highlights include type keywords in the filtered view.
• 3-Stage Highlighting: Toggle between Word, Line, and Full Line highlight modes.
• Navigation Animation: Visual flash effect when navigating to search matches (configurable).
• Expanded Colors: 17 distinct, high-visibility colors including a "Bold Only" (Color00) option.
• Context Lines: View matching lines with surrounding context (±3, ±5, ±9 lines).
• Focus Mode: Generates a new editor tab with filtered results, enabling multi-stage filtering.
• Regex Support: Advanced filtering using regular expressions.
• Drag & Drop: Move filters between groups and reorder groups themselves with ease.
• Organized Context Menus: Intuitive submenus for managing filter types, case sensitivity, and highlight modes.
• Selection to Filter: Quickly add selected text as a new filter via the editor context menu.
• Persistence: Filters are automatically saved and restored when VS Code restarts.
• Clear Data: Command to wipe all persistent data (filters, bookmarks, profiles) for a fresh start.
• Import/Export: Share and backup your filter configurations via JSON files.
• Quick Access: Toggle Word Wrap (active tab), Minimap, Sticky Scroll, and view File Size from the sidebar.
• ADB Logcat Integration: Directly view and filter Android logs within VS Code.
  • Device Management: View connected devices and their status.
  • Process Filtering: Filter logs by specific running applications (PID) automatically.
  • Control Device: Quickly take screenshots, record screen, and toggle 'Show Touches'.
  • App Control: Uninstall apps, clear storage, clear cache, and run dumpsys commands.
  • Launch Installed App: Select and launch any launchable app directly from the device tree.
  • Session Management: Create multiple logcat sessions with custom tag filters, priorities, and historical time toggles.
• Log Bookmarks: Bookmark important lines in your log files for easy reference and navigation.
  • Add/Remove: Toggle bookmarks via context menu.
  • Keyword Tags: Add custom tags to bookmarks for better organization.
  • Navigate: Jump to bookmarks instantly from the "LogMagnifier" view in the Panel.
  • Word Wrap: Toggle word wrap specifically for the bookmark view.
  • Clear All: Quickly remove all bookmarks for the current file.
  • Persistence: Bookmarks are saved and restored across sessions.
• Log Analysis Workflows: Automated, multi-step log analysis by chaining multiple filter profiles.
• Shell Commander: Execute and organize custom shell scripts (bash/zsh) with support for multi-line commands and configurable terminal reuse strategies.
• Interactive JSON Preview: Extract and explore JSON objects from log lines in a dedicated, searchable tree view (Ctrl+Cmd+J).
  • Depth Control: Incrementally expand or collapse JSON structure levels with persistent depth state.
• File Hierarchy & Navigation: Persistent tracking of relationships between original logs, filtered views, and bookmarks.
  • CodeLens: clickable "Original" and "Parent" links automatically appear at the top of filtered files.
  • Tree View: Visualize the full hierarchy (Original -> Filter -> Bookmark) in an indented tree (Ctrl+Cmd+T).
  • Management: Quickly remove items using the trash icon, with support for recursive deletion (deleting a root file removes all its derivatives).
  • Persistence: Navigation links and hierarchy are preserved even after restarting VS Code.

Usage

File Hierarchy & Navigation

1. CodeLens Navigation:
   • When you apply a filter, the new temporary file will have links at the top line:
     • [Original]: Jump directly to the source log file.
     • [Parent]: Jump to the immediate parent file (e.g., if you filtered a filter).
     • [Full Tree]: Open the full hierarchy menu.
2. Full Tree View:
   • Displays a recursive, indented tree view of all related files (Original, Filters, Bookmarks).
   • Select any item to jump to it.
   • Click the Trash icon on an item to remove it.
     • Deleting a parent (e.g., Original) will recursively remove all its children (Filters, Bookmarks).
3. Persistence:
   • You can confidently "Close" filter tabs. When you re-open them (e.g., via Bookmarks), the hierarchy and navigation links are automatically restored.

Filter View

1. Open "LogMagnifier" from the Activity Bar (LogMagnifier icon).
2. Open Log File: Open the log file you wish to analyze in the editor.
3. Manage Filters:
   • Add Group: Click the folder icon to create a new Filter Group (e.g., "AuthFlow").
   • Expand/Collapse All: Use the Expand/Collapse icons in the view title to manage all groups at once.
   • Rename: Right-click a group or a filter item to Rename its keyword.
   • Bulk Actions: Right-click a group to Enable All Items or Disable All Items.
   • Copy: Right-click a group to Copy Enabled Items as a list or tag format.
   • Import/Export: Use the Export and Import icons in the view title bar to backup or share your filters.
4. Add Filters: Activate the group, then click the Plus (+) icon to add a keyword.
   • Tip: Select text in the editor, right-click, and choose Add Selection to LogMagnifier to instantly create a filter.
   • Tip: Right-click items to access organized options like Filter Type, Case Sensitivity, Highlight Mode, and Context Lines.
   • Tip: Click the Arrow Up/Down icons on a filter item to navigate to the previous or next match in the editor.
   • Tip: Use keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + Cmd + ] (Next) and Ctrl + Cmd + [ (Previous) to navigate matches of the selected filter.
5. Apply: Click the Play icon in the view title to generate filtered results.
   • Tip: Toggle the List Icon in the view title to include original line numbers in the output.
6. Quick Access: Use the Quick Access view to toggle editor settings (Word Wrap, Minimap, Sticky Scroll) or check the current file size.
   • Tip: Click the File Size item to cycle through units (Bytes, KB, MB).

ADB Devices View

1. Devices:
   • The "ADB Devices" view automatically lists connected Android devices.
   • Select Target App: Click the "Target app" item under a device to filter logs by a specific running application.
2. Control Device:
   • Screenshot: Capture and view a screenshot of the device immediately.
   • Screen Record: Start/Stop screen recording. Videos are automatically pulled to your temp folder and opened.
   • Show Touches: Toggle visual feedback for taps on the device screen.
3. Control App:
   • When a target app is selected, a "Control app" menu appears.
   • Actions: Uninstall, Clear Storage, or Clear Cache for the selected application.
   • Dumpsys: Access package, meminfo, and activity dumps directly from the sidebar.
4. Sessions:
   • Create Session: Click the + icon on "Logcat Sessions" or run "Add Logcat Session".
   • History Toggle: Toggle the clock icon on a session to switch between "Start from now" and "Show full history".
   • Add Tags: Right-click a session to add specific tag filters (e.g., MyApp:D).
   • Start/Stop: Use the Play/Stop icons to control log capture.
   • Output: Logs are streamed to a new editor document with a detailed header.

Log Analysis Workflows

1. Automation: Chain multiple profiles to analyze complex issues from various angles sequentially.
2. Cumulative Filtering: Each step in a workflow inherits filtered results from previous steps (Step N = Profile N applies to results of Step 0..N-1).
3. Manage Workflows:
   • Click the Workflows icon (circuit board) in the activity bar.
   • Create/Rename: Manage your analysis scenarios as Workflows.
   • Add Profiles: Add existing Filter Profiles as steps.
   • Reorder: Use the arrow icons to change execution order.
   • Run: Click the Play icon to execute all steps automatically.
4. Execution Feedback: The sidebar visualizes step progress, indicating the currently active step and completion status.

Shell Commander

1. Overview:
   • Execute custom shell commands and scripts directly from the sidebar.
   • Support for multi-line commands: complex scripts are executed as temporary files to ensure reliability and preserve environment state.
   • Organize commands into Groups and Folders.
2. Execution:
   • Run: Click the item, use the play icon, or use the Enter key.
   • Context Menu: Right-click to Edit, Rename, Edit Description, or Delete.
3. Configuration:
   • Commands are stored in logmagnifier_shell_cmds.json.
   • Global config accessible via command palette: LogMagnifier: Open Global Shell Config.
   • Flexible terminal management via Terminal Reuse Strategy settings.

Log Bookmarks

1. Add Bookmark:
   • Right-click a line and select "Add Line to LogMagnifier Bookmark".
   • Select text in the editor, right-click, and select "Add Matches to LogMagnifier Bookmark" to bookmark all occurrences.
2. View Bookmarks:
   • Open the "LogMagnifier" view in the panel (bottom panel).
   • Click any bookmark to jump to that line in the editor.
   • Click the 'x' icon to remove a bookmark.
3. Manage Bookmarks:
   • Quick File Switch: Click the file tabs in the header to instantly jump between bookmarked files.
   • Add Tags: Right-click a bookmark to add a custom keywoard tag (e.g., #error, #login) which is displayed next to the line number.
   • Toggle Word Wrap: Use the "Word Wrap" icon in the view title or Alt+Z (when view is focused) to toggle wrapping for long log lines.
   • Clear All: Use the "Clear All" icon to remove all bookmarks for the current file.
   • Remove: Click the 'x' icon to remove a single bookmark.
4. Persistence & Layout:
   • Bookmarks are saved and restored across sessions.
   • LIFO Ordering: Newest bookmark files always appear at the top.
   • Smart Scroll: View maintains position and expanded/collapsed state for each file independently.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.104.0 or higher.

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings:

• logmagnifier.jsonPreview.enabled: Enable automatic JSON preview update when active line changes. (Default: false)
• logmagnifier.jsonPreview.maxLines: Maximum number of lines to process for JSON preview. Selections exceeding this limit will be truncated. (Default: 10)
• logmagnifier.regex.enableHighlight: Enable highlighting for Regex filters in the editor. (Default: false)
• logmagnifier.regex.highlightColor: Background color for Regex highlight. Can be a color string, a preset name, or an object with light/dark values.
• logmagnifier.highlightColors.color00: Special "Bold Only" style (no background color).
• logmagnifier.highlightColors.color01 ... color16: Customizable light/dark mode colors for each highlight preset.
• logmagnifier.tempFilePrefix: Prefix for the filtered temp files. (Default: filtered_)
• logmagnifier.statusBarTimeout: Duration for status bar messages in milliseconds. (Default: 5000)
• logmagnifier.adbPath: Path to the adb executable. (Default: adb)
• logmagnifier.adbLogcatDefaultOptions: Default options for adb logcat command. (Default: -v threadtime)
• logmagnifier.bookmark.maxMatches: Maximum number of matches to add to bookmarks at once. (Default: 500)
• logmagnifier.removeMatches.maxLines: Threshold for confirming removal of lines matching selection. (Default: 2000)
• logmagnifier.shellCommander.terminalReuseStrategy: Strategy for reusing terminals when executing shell commands (perFolder, perGroup, global, perCommand). (Default: perFolder)

Known Limitations

Large File Support & Highlighting

LogMagnifier depends on VS Code's extension capabilities to provide highlighting and navigation. There are two levels of limitations for large files:

1. Restricted Mode (editor.largeFileOptimizations):

   • VS Code defaults to "restricted mode" for large files to allow them to open quickly. In this mode, extensions are disabled.
   • To enable Highlighting, Previous Match, and Next Match commands for these files, you must disable this optimization in your VS Code settings:

     "editor.largeFileOptimizations": false
     

   • Warning: This may cause VS Code to freeze or perform slowly when opening very large files.

2. Extension Host Hard Limit (50MB):

   • Even with optimizations disabled, VS Code's extension host has a hard limit. Files larger than 50MB are not synchronized to extensions (reference).
   • For files > 50MB, highlighting will not work regardless of your settings because the text content is completely invisible to the plugin.
   • Workaround: Use the Apply Filter (Play button) feature. This streams the file content (bypassing the editor limit) and generates a smaller filtered log file where highlighting and navigation will work perfectly.

Contributors

Thanks to the following people who have contributed to this project:

• @birdea
• @JeanTracker
• @HanDougChun

Credits

All code in this project was written using Google Antigravity and Claude Code. Maintained by webispy.