Install Gonzo Log File Viewer on Ubuntu 26.04

Gonzo is a terminal-based log viewer designed to make structured and plain-text logs easier to read and investigate. It provides an interactive interface for browsing log output and can be particularly useful when examining system or application logs. This tutorial explains how to install Gonzo log file viewer on Ubuntu 26.04.

Install Gonzo

Retrieve the latest Gonzo release version from GitHub and store it in a variable:

GONZO_VERSION=$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/control-theory/gonzo/releases/latest" | grep -Po '"tag_name": "v\K[0-9.]+')

Download the corresponding archive and extract the binary to the system path:

curl -sSL https://github.com/control-theory/gonzo/releases/latest/download/gonzo-$GONZO_VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz \
  | sudo tar xz -C /usr/local/bin gonzo

Once the installation finishes, check the Gonzo version to verify that the binary is available:

gonzo --version

Testing Gonzo

Gonzo can be launched against a log file. For example, the following command opens the Debian package manager log:

gonzo -f /var/log/dpkg.log

After launching Gonzo, the log entries are displayed in an interactive terminal interface. The dashboard provides an overview of frequently occurring words, detected log patterns, and message counts, while the lower section lists individual entries for closer inspection.

Uninstall Gonzo

If Gonzo is no longer needed, remove its binary from the system path:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/gonzo

Gonzo configuration data can also be deleted using the command:

rm -rf ~/.config/gonzo