Bonus guide: LNTOP terminal dashboard

lntop is an interactive text-mode channels viewer for Unix systems.

Difficulty: Easy

Status: Tested v3

lntop

Table of contents

Install lntop
1. Run lntop
2. lntop in action
Update
Uninstall

Install lntop

As user “admin”, download the application, checksums, and the corresponding signature file

$ cd /tmp/
$ wget https://github.com/edouardparis/lntop/releases/download/v0.3.0/lntop-v0.3.0-Linux-arm64.tar.gz
$ wget https://github.com/edouardparis/lntop/releases/download/v0.3.0/checksums-lntop-v0.3.0.txt
$ wget https://github.com/edouardparis/lntop/releases/download/v0.3.0/checksums-lntop-v0.3.0.txt.sig

Get the PGP key from Edouard, developer of lntop. You can compare the fingerprint against the one in his Twitter profile

$ curl https://edouard.paris/key.asc | gpg --import
> ...
> gpg: key 47EEBB014DD80918: public key "Edouard (Personal) <m@edouard.paris>" imported
> ...

Verify the signature of the text file containing the checksums for the application

$ gpg --verify checksums-lntop-v0.3.0.txt.sig checksums-lntop-v0.3.0.txt
> gpg: Signature made Fri Jan 14 09:37:27 2022 GMT
> gpg:                using RSA key A8BA5205BFCBC668853D560247EEBB014DD80918
> gpg: Good signature from "Edouard (Personal) <m@edouard.paris>" [unknown]
> gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
> gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
> Primary key fingerprint: A8BA 5205 BFCB C668 853D  5602 47EE BB01 4DD8 0918

Verify the signed checksum against the actual checksum of your download

$ sha256sum --check checksums-lntop-v0.3.0.txt --ignore-missing
> lntop-v0.3.0-Linux-arm64.tar.gz: OK

If everything checks out, you can install the application

$ tar -xvf lntop-v0.3.0-Linux-arm64.tar.gz
$ sudo install -m 0755 -o root -g root -t /usr/local/bin release-v0.3.0/lntop

Run lntop

Depending on the size of your LND channel database, lntop can take quite a while to start.
```
$ lntop
```

lntop in action

To use all the functionalities of lntop, use the following keys:

F1 (or h) = Display an “About” page and a list of keyboard keys to use (press F1 again to exit this screen)
F2 (or m) = Display a Menu bar on the left
1. Navigate the Menu with the up and down keys (see below); there are three options:
  - CHANNEL = (the home page/default view), a table of all channels
  - TRANSAC = a table of lightning transactions
  - ROUTING = a table of routing event as they happen (no historical events shown, and any displayed event will be deleted if you quit lntop)
2. Press Enter to see the desired view
3. Press F2 to enter the desired view and exit the left Menu bar
Arrow keys: ←, →, ↑, ↓ =
- when the left Menu bar is active = Navigate the Menu options (up and down only)
- when the left Menu bar is inactive = Navigate the colmuns (left, right) and/or the lines (up, down) of the displayed table (CHANNEL, TRANSAC or ROUTING)
Home = Navigate to the first line of the table
End = Navigate to the last line of the table
Enter =
- when the left Menu bar is active: See the content of the desired Menu entry
- when the left Menu bar is inactive: Displays additional information on a channel or transaction, depending on the table being viewed:
  - CHANNEL = Display detailed information about a channel
  - TRANSAC = Display detailed information about a transaction
  - ROUTING = Display detailed information about a forwarded payment
a = Sort out column, ascending order
d = Sort out column, descending order
F10 (or q or Ctrl+C) = Quit lntop

Update

With user “admin”, check the version of lntop that is installed on your node
```
$ lntop --version
> lntop version v...
```
Check the lntop repository for new releases.
Follow the installation guidelines while making sure to replace the file names to match the latest version if necessary.

Uninstall

To remove lntop, simply delete the installed binary
```
$ cd /usr/local/bin
$ sudo rm -r lntop
```

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