Log file reviewing tools

Question

I find myself regularly looking at log files my code generates, can anyone suggest any good (free) utilities for reviewing large log files? I've been using notepad++ up to now but I was wondering if there are any better tools?

Answer 1

I am very happy with BareTail. It comes in a free and a pro version. The pro version is $35 well spent i my opinion (it gives you search/filtering supporting regex).

Answer 2

We really need more information on what logs you're using. You say these are in-house logs ... what is the structure of the logs? Would AWK/SED/GREP work for what you need? What platform are you on?

I write my logs out as XML and then I have a page in my webapp that reads the XML files and parses the structure into an accordion panel that I can quickly glance through to find the log information I'm looking for. A little consideration on both ends of that process and I ended up with a readily available logger that runs fast, keeps things local to the process, and which I can review at a moment's notice. No digging necessary.

Just depends on the problem you're trying to solve, of course.

Answer 3

I've used Log Monitor for "real-time" logging updates. It doesn't touch grep for digging into specifics, but for a view of what's going on as time passes, it is perfect (no more file refreshing to get to latest entries).