Litestream

Command: ltx

v0.5.0 The ltx command lists LTX (Litestream Transaction Log) files available for a database or replica. This command is not typically used in normal usage and is mainly used for debugging.

Usage

List by database

This command lists all LTX files for a database specified in the Litestream configuration file:

litestream ltx [arguments] DB_PATH

List by replica URL

This command lists all LTX files for a replica URL. This approach is useful when you do not have a configuration file.

litestream ltx [arguments] REPLICA_URL

Arguments 

-level LEVEL
    View LTX files at a specific compaction level.
    Accepts a level number (0-9) or "all" to show all levels.
    When set to "all", output includes a level column.
    Defaults to 0.

-config PATH
    Specifies the configuration file.
    Defaults to /etc/litestream.yml

-no-expand-env
    Disables environment variable expansion in configuration file.

-json
    Output raw JSON instead of human-readable text.

Output

When the -json flag is used, the command returns an array of objects with the following fields:

Field Description
level Compaction level (0-9)
min_txid Minimum transaction ID covered by the LTX file
max_txid Maximum transaction ID covered by the LTX file
size Size of the LTX file in bytes
timestamp Creation timestamp in RFC3339 format

A TXID identifies one L0 LTX file rather than one SQLite transaction. An incremental L0 file covers everything committed to the WAL since the previous sync, so the span between min_txid and max_txid counts LTX files, not transactions. An L0 file carries a single TXID, so both values are the same; compacted files at higher levels can cover a wider range.

When no LTX files are found, the command outputs an empty array ([]).

Examples

Database LTX files

List all LTX files for the /var/lib/db database:

$ litestream ltx /var/lib/db

View a specific compaction level

List only L0 (uncompacted) LTX files:

$ litestream ltx -level 0 /var/lib/db

View all compaction levels

List LTX files across all levels (output includes a level column):

$ litestream ltx -level all /var/lib/db

Replica URL LTX files

Lists all LTX files for a replica URL:

$ litestream ltx s3://mybkt.litestream.io/db

JSON output

Output raw JSON instead of human-readable text:

$ litestream ltx -json /var/lib/db
[
  {
    "level": 0,
    "min_txid": "0000000000000001",
    "max_txid": "0000000000000005",
    "size": 4096,
    "timestamp": "2025-01-21T12:00:00Z"
  }
]

See Also

← Command: replicate
Command: restore →