How to view the tail of a log file in Windows?

Question

What's an efficient way to view the last N lines of a large log file in Windows XP?

Would it be possible to then associate this method with .log files when double-clicked in Explorer?

Answer 1

Have a look at "Tail for Windows". It boasts the following features on their web page:

A few features of Tail: * Watch multiple files in realtime
* Detect keyword matches, and highlight occurrences
* Send mail notifications on keyword matches by SMTP or MAPI
* Plugin architecture allows you to write specialized handlers
* Can process files of any size on all types of drive (local or networked)

Answer 2

Tail Ace is the program

Answer 3

Baretail is quick nice and small

Answer 4

you could also get the tail.exe from MS themselves: resource kit (shocking I know, but sometimes they do have the right tools, you just have to know where to find them).

Answer 5

The tail.exe from the Windows 2003 Resource Kit is very limited and does not support the same functionality as its Unix/Linux counterpart.

Check out the UnxUtils. It is native port to Win32 and does not have any external dependenies.