Best tail (log file visualization) freeware tool ?

Question

I have many programs generating tons of logs in files.

What freeware do you know, either for Windows or for multi-platforms (if they are in java for instance), able to tail (display the end of) those files ?

A plus would be their capacity to display some line in a certain visual style depending on 'grep' criteria

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Quick update so far:

• simple 'tail command' won't do: the ability to easily switch between several log files is a must have.
• for windows, we seem to have so far:
  • tailforwin32 (formerly known as Tail for Win32)
  • BareTail
  • MTail

Note: a tool like gltail for remote visualization may be more suited for this question (web server log analysis)

Answer 1

For Windows, I use tailforwin32.sourceforge.net

Answer 2

If you are using windows this is one good tail from sourceforge!! http://www.codeproject.com/KB/applications/Tail_for_Win32.aspx

Also chek MTAIL a very good utility

Answer 3

I've always just used

tail -f <filename>

which works pretty well on linux/unix systems, but would require something like mingw or cygwin on windows.

However, the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools (the one you want is towards the bottom of the page) come with a tail utility, among other things.

Answer 4

Maybe not the best, but one of the prettiest is glTail - you can modify the tabs on the sides with your own regexps or custom events.

Answer 5

My personal favorite for the Wintel platform (at home and at work) is Baretail @ http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baretail/ It can easily display multiple files in a tabbed interface, has a VERY low footprint, and has customizable rules for highlighting and adding visual effects to the logs as they are displayed using text pattern matching & RegEX.

It is 100% free as in beer, even for commercial use and can store both preferences & the files last displayed on a per user basis so that every time you login, you can automatically open up your active logs!

Answer 6

You can try Tail For Win32 (http://tailforwin32.sourceforge.net/) if you need a Windows utility. It allows you to tail multiple files at the same time. It allows you to stop and restart the file listing if you want to get a closer look at a particular area of the file.

Answer 7

I just looked at jLogTailer

Its a standalone java jar, and it seems to work pretty well, at least on OSX -- problably on windows too.

Answer 8

I'm going to also vote for BareTail. After trying a number of different tools for the job, it just comes out way ahead. There are still some things it doesn't do that I'd like (such as splitting lines into columns based on a regex you provide), but in general it "just works".

Answer 9

Notepad++ comes with a 'Document Monitor' plugin which I use for tailing log files. I always have NPP open anyway so it fits in nicely, plus you get tabbed documents (which it remembers on close/re-open).

Answer 10

I use less, either in windows or in linux

Answer 11

Went to download bare tail, its not free.

Answer 12

Highly recommend LogExpert. I tried most of these here, and I highly recommend LogExpert. It has highlight, filter, search, monitor multiple files, bookmarks. It's great and it's free.

Answer 13

Apache Chainsaw, using a LogFilePatternReceiver to parse & tail the log files (and it supports filtering, colorizing, search, etc)

Answer 14

MultiTail... Check the screenshot here: http://satukubik.com/2010/01/07/multitail-colorize-your-log-files/

This application is available in *nix system and mac users can even use it from Macports.

The difference is that it creates multiple windows on your console (with ncurses).
It can also monitor wildcards: if another file matching the wildcard has a more recent modification date, it will automatically switch to that file. That way you can, for example, monitor a complete directory of files.
Merging of 2 or even more logfiles is possible.

Answer 15

BareTail is free (as in beer), BareTail Pro is not. Neither are open source.

Answer 16

We at Grasscove built Survlog for OS X. It handles a lot and looks very very clean.

We think being able to view log files that are remote is what sets us apart from other tailing applications as well as multiple log files at once.

Edit: I work for Grasscove :P

Answer 17

http://logview4net.com/ could also be an option.
The sources are here.
The freeware is also presented in this website.

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A free (open source) log monitor / log viewer for:

• Files and folders
• Incomming UDP traffic
• EventLogs
• SQL- Server tables
• Atom and RSS feeds
• StdOut and StdErr

Features:

• Multiple actions, such as highlight, ignore and sound, based on event content.
• Supports multiple simultaneous listeners in each session.
• Supports several simultaneous sessions (MDI).

Requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Answer 18

The Kiwi Log Viewer has a working free version, but some important features are limited there (e.g. recent files list limit is 2).