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ccze.exe - A Windows Log Colorizer — Based on a port of ccze with PCRE2 regex rules, built-in syslog parser, and single static MSVC binary

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ccze-win v1.1 by scramblr ©2026

A Windows log colorizer inspired by ccze. Reads log data from stdin or a file, applies regex-based color rules, and outputs colorized text to the terminal or as HTML.

Features

  • ANSI & Windows Console color auto-detection (VTP or SetConsoleTextAttribute fallback)
  • HTML output mode with inline CSS or external stylesheet
  • PCRE2 regex rules loaded from a config file
  • Tool rules that pipe matched text through external commands (e.g. jq .)
  • Word coloring of common keywords (ERROR, WARN, INFO, etc.) in unmatched text
  • Built-in syslog parser matching ccze's color scheme
  • Syslog facility stripping (-r)
  • Single static binary — no DLL dependencies

Quick Start

ccze.exe [OPTIONS] [FILE]

Pipe a log file:

type (or cat, w/e) myapp.log | ccze

Read from a file:

ccze myapp.log

Output as HTML:

ccze -h myapp.log > output.html

Options

Flag Description
-A, --raw-ansi Force ANSI escape code output
-h, --html Output colorized HTML
-m, --mode MODE Output mode: ansi, html, none (default: auto)
-F, --rcfile FILE Use FILE as config instead of ccze.conf
-c, --color KEY=COL Override a color from the command line
-r, --remove-facility Strip syslog facility/level prefix
-l, --list-rules List loaded rules and exit
-o, --options OPT Toggle: wordcolor/nowordcolor, transparent/notransparent, cssfile=FILE
--no-color Disable all color output
-V, --version Print version and exit
--help Show help

Configuration

Rules are loaded from ccze.conf (next to ccze.exe, or specified with -F).

# Lines starting with # are comments

# Color rules: color  COLOR_NAME  PCRE2_REGEX
color  BRIGHT_RED     \bERROR\b
color  GREEN          \bINFO\b
color  YELLOW         \bWARN(ING)?\b

# Tool rules: pipe matched text through a command
tool   jq .    \{[\s\S]*?\}

Available colors: BLACK, RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, MAGENTA, CYAN, WHITE, and BRIGHT_ variants of each.

Rules are processed in order. First match wins per character position.

Building

Requires:

  • Visual Studio 2022 (MSVC)
  • vcpkg with pcre2:x64-windows-static
vcpkg install pcre2:x64-windows-static
build.bat

Produces a single ccze.exe with PCRE2 statically linked.

Windows Supported Files

  1. CBS.log (Servicing)
  2. dism.log (Deployment)
  3. setupapi.dev.log (Driver installation - uses >>> and <<<)
  4. setupapi.setup.log (App/OS setup)
  5. WindowsUpdate.log (Update traces)
  6. pfirewall.log (Windows Firewall traffic)
  7. SrtTrail.txt (Startup Repair results)
  8. PFRO.log (Pending File Rename Operations)
  9. setuperr.log (OS Installation errors)
  10. setupact.log (OS Installation actions)
  11. MSI*.log (Windows Installer logs)
  12. DirectX.log (DirectX setup)
  13. DPX.log (Data Package Expander)
  14. ReportingEvents.log (Update reporting)
  15. WinSetup.log (Modern Setup logs)
  16. MoSetup.log (Media Creation Tool / Upgrade)
  17. Diagerr/Diagwrn (System Diagnostics)
  18. VSS logs (Volume Shadow Copy)
  19. WlanMgr.log (Wireless networking)
  20. Shell.log (Explorer/Shell events)

If you want something added, file an issue at https://github.com/scramblr/ccze-win

Linux Supported Files

All the same ones as it always has supported: syslog, nginx, apache logs, etc.

Again, If you want something added, file an issue at https://github.com/scramblr/ccze-win

License

PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 — free for personal/non-commercial use. See LICENSE.md for details.

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ccze.exe - A Windows Log Colorizer — Based on a port of ccze with PCRE2 regex rules, built-in syslog parser, and single static MSVC binary

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