CLI flag for automatic timestamping

[zadirion]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Some build and other log formats do not have timestamps in their format, and they're generally not regular enough to be able to define a format around them (msbuild logs for example). This sends the log to TEXT view. A simple CLI flag can be made so that the log(s) get automatically timestamped and end up shown in the LOG view as generic_log format. This is a much better user experience

[piotr-dobrogost]

Based on what, would they get automatically timestamped?
Have you seen -t option?

[tstack]

the log(s) get automatically timestamped

All input piped into lnav or executed via the -e command-line flag or the :sh command is always timestamped internally. You can press SHIFT + T to reveal the elapsed-time column to make use of it. This is covered in TEXT view docs and there's a screenshot with the elapsed-time showing.

[zadirion]

the log(s) get automatically timestamped

All input piped into lnav or executed via the -e command-line flag or the :sh command is always timestamped internally. You can press SHIFT + T to reveal the elapsed-time column to make use of it. This is covered in TEXT view docs and there's a screenshot with the elapsed-time showing.

@tstack fair enough but I did not see lnav recognizing logs without timestamps as "generic log" format, like it would if the timestamps were part of the file. This is preventing merging of log entries as they arrive, if I am monitoring an entire folder log.
I guess another way of saying it would be I want to be able to force logs that otherwise wouldn't be recognized as logs to go to the log view instead of the TEXT view and be processed as logs, if the log is being streamed in (from disk or stdin). If they end up in text then they can't be merged by timestamp (because the timestamp does not exist)

@piotr-dobrogost my apologies i was not clear in my original post, I meant for logs that are being piped in, and I meant it should end up in the log view and merged with other logs by timestamp, like any normal log would.

I think an simpler way to put this would be: logs that fail to have their format recognized, but are being piped in, can just have their timestamp automatically factored in and simply be recognized as "generic log" format and show up in the LOG view rather than TEXT view. Whether as a default behavior of lnav or as a CLI flag.