How can I monitor trace output of a .Net app?

Question

I'm working on some code that uses the System.Diagnostics.Trace class and I'm wondering how to monitor what is written via calls to Trace.WriteLine() both when running in debug mode in Visual Studio and when running outside the debugger.

Answer 1

Try Debug View. It works quite nicely.

Answer 2

I use a simple little program called 'BareTail' which displays plain text files, updating it's display as the file gets written to and follows (or wraps) to the bottom of the file.

When running outside the debugger you'll need to attach a file-writer to write out the trace information, which you can do by adding a few lines to the .exe.config file

Hope that Helps ;o)

Answer 3

Have a look at DevTracer. It also allows monitoring a .NET application remotely.

DISCLAIMER: I am the developer of DevTracer and therfore my opinion may not be neutral.