In order to more easily monitor some web services that we have running, I whipped up a quick .NET app to monitor log files in real-time. I got a little bit carried away and wrote more than I needed, but I think this app will save a lot of time in the long run.
The app is called LogFileMonitor and it’s available at google code. You can download a Windows binary or the full source (GPL3) at http://code.google.com/p/logfilemonitor/. A screenshot and feature list are on the google code page.
If you’re a software developer and have any interest in participating, drop me a line. It would be nice to have a Mono port so the app can run on any OS. Currently it only runs on Windows.
Hmm, why not just use tail -f?
it’s roughly the same functionality as tail -f, but i think the gui interface is convenient, especially if you associate .log files with the app – you can start monitoring any file with one click. i think a lot of windows users prefer gui apps over command line apps.
also, if you check the source code, there’s potential to monitor entire directories, apply filters, etc. i don’t personally need that so i didn’t implement it but maybe somebody else will run with it?
Tail for Win32 has a gui . . .
http://tailforwin32.sourceforge.net/
I hadn’t seen that gui before, it looks good. i’ve gotten used to my own app now, though. i use it to wipe the log, do some testing, wipe it again, etc so it just has the one or two buttons i want. tailforwin32 looks a lot nicer for administrative monitoring.