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?

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 07 '10 at 15:46

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)

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 15 '11 at 13:07

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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.

answered Mar 15 '11 at 13:07

tcare

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 07 '10 at 14:48

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Tail Ace is the program

answered Oct 07 '10 at 14:48

fmysky

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The realtime update feature sounds helpful, though I'm a little surprised that its 6.6Mb! Will check it out... – Ian Mackinnon Oct 07 '10 at 14:57

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 07 '10 at 16:21

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Baretail is quick nice and small

answered Oct 07 '10 at 16:21

Hubert Kario

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 07 '10 at 16:57

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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).

answered Oct 07 '10 at 16:57

natxo asenjo

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

5 Answers5