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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

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77% accept rate
Which IDE are you using? – chickeninabiscuit May 8 '09 at 6:28
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14 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

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)
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This is what (BareTail Free version) I settled with for now. Thanks Rob – Sung Jul 19 '09 at 17:35
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up vote 17 down vote

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).

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You are right, Greg, I should have mentioned my platform. It's windows XP/2003 server – Sung Apr 30 '09 at 23:21
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up vote 15 down vote

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.

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The advanced features feel a little buggy but for simply tailing the file, it's perfect. – Michael Haren Apr 30 '09 at 23:10
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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 Apr 30 '09 at 23:34
That one looks nice to know about too. – Jorge Alves Apr 30 '09 at 23:40
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up vote 10 down vote

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.

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+1 Wow, I have been using Notepad++ for awhile but didn't know about this functionality. thanks. – Sung Apr 30 '09 at 23:57
does this still exist, I don't see it in version 5.9.8 that I just downloaded. – Scott Jan 20 at 17:07
@Scott can be downloaded as a plugin sourceforge.net/projects/npp-plugins/files/DocMonitor – Fishcake May 11 at 10:18
+1 from me too. I love Notepad++ but didn't even think of looking for a plugin. Bye bye BareTail. – Fishcake May 11 at 10:19
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up vote 5 down vote

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

type -wait
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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 Sep 12 '09 at 17:41
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up vote 4 down vote

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

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Would you add log-expert.de to your answer? Thanks. – Sung May 3 '09 at 0:24
@dance2die done – VonC May 3 '09 at 10:04
yeah, this solution rocks. Better than notepad++, which only updates every 3 seconds, and is a bit flaky. – Jacko Mar 10 '11 at 19:52
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up vote 3 down vote

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

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Great! I didn't get to run into this one. – Sung May 3 '09 at 0:23
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up vote 2 down vote

Like tail -f file.log?

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But doesn't this mean I have to be running the command constantly? – Sung Apr 30 '09 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 '09 at 23:26
He also said for the Windows OS. – Pure.Krome May 1 '09 at 0:02
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Not when I answered, he hadn't. – Ben Alpert May 1 '09 at 0:32
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up vote 2 down vote

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).

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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 May 3 '09 at 0:22
Yeah, that's the one -- kiwisyslog.com – DougN May 4 '09 at 15:35
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up vote 1 down vote

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

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Hmm. Cygwin. I haven't played around with that for years... – Sung May 3 '09 at 1:49
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up vote 1 down vote

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.

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It looks like TextPad has a the same capability as NotePad++'s Document Monitor plugin – Sung May 3 '09 at 0:26
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up vote 0 down vote

"tail -f logname"?

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He edited his post to say it's for Windows OS only. – Pure.Krome May 1 '09 at 0:02
There are plenty of versions of tail for Windows, including in cygwin. – Paul Tomblin May 1 '09 at 0:13
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up vote 0 down vote

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.

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up vote 0 down vote

I know its a bit late, but as someone else mentioned, I really like Tail For Win32 - I produced a short video showing how I used it to monitor a robocopy log during a ton of files being transferred from one computer to another.

---> LINK TO VIDEO <---

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It's never late, but it sometimes is a duplicate - there is already an answer pointing to tailforwin32. You might choose to link to your video in a comment there and delete this answer. – syneticon-dj Jan 25 at 13:23
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