log_follow
lets you see the content of text files in soft real-time. It is a
gui that gives the functionality of
tail
-f while adding some extra
features. If you have never used
tail -f,
the way
log_follow
works is by telling it which text file you want to follow. As
another program makes changes to the log file,
log_follow's main window will be
updated to stay in sync.
log_follow has some extra
features that are difficult to script using
tail -f. If you look at the
screen capture above, you will see three checkboxes. The first
checkbox is labeled "Scroll." If enabled,
log_follow will automatically
scroll when new text is added; if disabled,
log_follow will not scroll.
By disabling scroll, it will be much easier to keep your place while
reading. As a convenience, any time you click in the window,
e.g., to copy text, scroll will be disabled. You can
automatically start
log_follow
in scroll mode by adding the -s command-line flag.
The second checkbox is labeled "Warp." When warp is enabled,
log_follow will automatically
switch to view any new log file that is detected.
log_follow considers a new log file
to be any file with the same basename as the file you are currently
following. For example, if you are viewing the file
log.001 and
log.002 is created in the same
directory,
log_follow will
stop viewing
log.001 and
start viewing
log.002.
You can automatically start
log_follow
in warp mode by adding the -w command-line flag.
The third checkbox is labeled "Incoming." This checkbox is used
to alert you when something new has been logged. If you specify
the "--odelay <secs>" option, the checkbox will automatically
uncheck itself after <sec> seconds delay. With or without
the --odelay flag,
log_follow
will respect your manual control of the checkbox which allows you to
manually mark all text as old at any time.
log_follow knows how to color
code
text to make it easy to distinguish new text from old text. Just
add the "--nfg <color>" and the "--ofg <color>"
command-line flags to set the new and old foreground colors
respectively. You can also add the "--blink" command-line flag to
force
log_follow to flash a
visible bell when something new is logged. Lastly, you can use
the "--cr" flag to instruct
log_follow
to allow you to use <enter> to input carriage returns at the
cursor or <ctrl><enter> to insert a
carriage returns at the end of file. The
extra spacing can be used to help you visually separate parts of the
log file. (The carriage returns are not written to disk.)
For this release,
log_follow
detects changes by polling. The default is
to check about every half second. If you want more responsiveness or
less cpu consumption, you can alter the polling periods. Use the
"--pc <freq>" command-line flag to alter how frequently you check
for new content. Use the "--pf <freq>" command-line
flag to alter how frequently you check for new log files.
You can jump to the bottom of the file using
<ctrl><arrow_down> and return using
<ctrl><arrow_up>. This allows you to
bookmark what you are currently reading so you can see new log messages
without losing your place.
The log file you want to follow does not have to be in existence
when you start
log_follow.
For example, if you start
log_follow
with "log_follow -s -w log" when no "log.*" files are present,
log_follow will detect when they
are created and load them then.
You can see all the command-line flags by starting
log_follow with the -h flag.
I provide pre-built executables. To
run, just download the correct executable below for your system.
Place it in any
directory and make sure the file permissions on your copy allow
execution.
Log Follow is released under a
BSD-style License.
