log1txt

Log1txt is the name given to a compact, line-oriented text log format used in software projects to record events. Designed for simplicity and speed, log1txt aims to provide readable entries that are easy to parse by standard text-processing tools while keeping the file size small.

A typical log1txt record consists of a timestamp, a severity or level indicator, and a message. Fields are separated by a delimiter, commonly a tab or pipe character, and each entry occupies a single line. Optional fields may include a source component, process or thread identifiers, and a structured payload, which may be serialized in a lightweight key=value form or kept as a free-text message.

Origins of log1txt are tied to projects seeking a middle ground between raw plain-text logs and more verbose structured formats like JSON. The format is not standardized; implementations vary by project, with some adopting fixed-width timestamps, others using ISO 8601, and several supporting log rotation and optional compression.

Use cases include server applications, embedded systems, and development workflows where fast ingestion and simple grep-based analysis are valued. Because log1txt is plain text, it remains highly portable across operating systems and is compatible with common tools such as grep, awk, and sed, as well as modern log collectors that ingest line-delimited records.

Limitations include potential inconsistency between implementations and weaker support for nested structures compared with JSON logs. Adopters typically document their specific field order and delimiter, and many projects provide parsers or libraries to standardize interpretation within a given codebase.