Question

8

2

There is a already question that asks about opening a large log files.

But my intention is different. Is there any application that monitors a log file and updates as it is updated in real time?

Platform: Windows XP/2003/2008 server

[Update] this is quite handy for a quick monitoring(thanks to Ckarras's answer)
Quick screen shot of PowerShell type -wait (type is an alias for get-content) alt text

edited Sep 12 at 17:43

asked Apr 30 at 23:03

Sung Meister
652●2●7●16

88% accept rate

Which IDE are you using? – chickeninabiscuit May 8 at 6:28

Rob Thomas · Answer 1 · 2009-05-01 01:21:53Z

I've been using BareTailPro for awhile, and have been very pleased. It hasn't been updated in awhile, but it still meets my needs. There's also a free version.

Here's some of the features:

View files of any size (> 2GB)
Configurable highlighting
Monitor multiple files simultaneously
High-performance search algorithm
Regular expression text search
Filter tail mode (include or exclude lines)

Greg Hewgill · Answer 2 · 2009-04-30 23:05:31Z

16

You don't mention which platform you're using, but on Unix-like systems the tail command does this:

tail -f /var/log/messages

In fact there are implementations of tail for Windows also (eg. unxutils).

answered Apr 30 at 23:05

Greg Hewgill
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You are right, Greg, I should have mentioned my platform. It's windows XP/2003 server – Sung Meister Apr 30 at 23:21

Jorge Alves · Answer 3 · 2009-04-30 23:32:33Z

14

If windows is your thing you could try Tail for Win32.

edit: Another alternative I just found is TailXP. It's free, but not opensource. Looks ok from the description but I haven't tried it.

edited Apr 30 at 23:32

answered Apr 30 at 23:08

Jorge Alves
320●1●6

The advanced features feel a little buggy but for simply tailing the file, it's perfect. – Michael Haren Apr 30 at 23:10

2

Because of "tail" stuff people were mentioning, I found something called "BareTail" - baremetalsoft.com/baretail So far it seems to be doing what I wanted. But I am open for more suggestions. – Sung Meister Apr 30 at 23:34

That one looks nice to know about too. – Jorge Alves Apr 30 at 23:40

Zack Elan · Answer 4 · 2009-04-30 23:42:08Z

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I use Notepad++ as my default text editor on all my systems, and it has the nice bonus of having this built-in - just go Plugins -> Document Monitor -> Start to monitor. You can also use File -> Reload from disk to manually reload it.

answered Apr 30 at 23:42

Zack Elan
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+1 Wow, I have been using Notepad++ for awhile but didn't know about this functionality. thanks. – Sung Meister Apr 30 at 23:57

VonC · Answer 5 · 2009-05-03 10:02:16Z

3

Actually, Log-Expert does what you want, plus a lot of nice feature

alt text

edited May 3 at 10:02

answered May 1 at 0:10

VonC
486●1●2●8

	Would you add log-expert.de to your answer? Thanks. – Sung Meister May 3 at 0:24
	@dance2die done – VonC May 3 at 10:04

Ben Alpert · Answer 6 · 2009-04-30 23:05:11Z

2

Like tail -f file.log?

answered Apr 30 at 23:05

Ben Alpert
1,303●3●12

But doesn't this mean I have to be running the command constantly? – Sung Meister Apr 30 at 23:20

No, the tail command will wait after printing the last line, and when the file is updated/appended it will print the new line(s) and wait again. Instead of plain tail you might try vanheusden.com/multitail. – hlovdal Apr 30 at 23:26

He also said for the Windows OS. – Pure.Krome May 1 at 0:02

1

Not when I answered, he hadn't. – Ben Alpert May 1 at 0:32

DougN · Answer 7 · 2009-05-02 23:39:29Z

2

I love the Kiwi Log Viewer. They were just bought out by Solarwinds -- I assume the product is still for sale (or maybe they're giving it away for free now? They're giving away a few other Kiwi products).

answered May 2 at 23:39

DougN
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	Would you post link to Kiwi Log Viewer? I am not sure if this one I found is the one you are referring to: kiwisyslog.com/kiwi-log-viewer-overview – Sung Meister May 3 at 0:22
	Yeah, that's the one -- kiwisyslog.com – DougN May 4 at 15:35

John Dyer · Answer 8 · 2009-05-02 23:51:23Z

2

I have had good luck with the windows program mtail. It does a very nice job of monitoring an active log. You can configure quite a few options but in general I have found the defaults work very well.

mtail

answered May 2 at 23:51

John Dyer
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Great! I didn't get to run into this one. – Sung Meister May 3 at 0:23

ckarras · Answer 9 · 2009-09-10 13:50:25Z

2

There's also an equivalent to "tail -f" under Windows, if you have PowerShell installed:

type -wait

answered Sep 10 at 13:50

ckarras
121●2

Wow. this is quite awesome. I had no idea about that "-wait" option for "Get-Content". Thanks ckarras. I have also updated question with the screenshot. – Sung Meister Sep 12 at 17:41

Gary Richardson · Answer 10 · 2009-05-01 00:55:11Z

1

If you install Cygwin on your Windows machine, you can run tail

answered May 1 at 0:55

Gary Richardson
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Hmm. Cygwin. I haven't played around with that for years... – Sung Meister May 3 at 1:49

bruceatk · Answer 11 · 2009-05-01 12:25:10Z

1

I typically do this with TextPad. It has the option to monitor that a file has been modified. It is an option to either automatically update the window or to prompt you whether or not you want to reload the file.

edited May 1 at 12:25

answered May 1 at 1:51

bruceatk
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It looks like TextPad has a the same capability as NotePad++'s Document Monitor plugin – Sung Meister May 3 at 0:26

Paul Tomblin · Answer 12 · 2009-04-30 23:05:18Z

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"tail -f logname"?

answered Apr 30 at 23:05

Paul Tomblin
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	He edited his post to say it's for Windows OS only. – Pure.Krome May 1 at 0:02
	There are plenty of versions of tail for Windows, including in cygwin. – Paul Tomblin May 1 at 0:13

chickeninabiscuit · Answer 13 · 2009-05-08 06:25:41Z

0

If you're using eclipse there's a fully sick plugin called Log Watcher

http://graysky.sourceforge.net/

It supports multiple files, plus color highlighting.

answered May 8 at 6:25

chickeninabiscuit
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How to monitor a log file in real time?

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