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I am asking because I am sick of watching tab separated log files everyday like this:

164.56.95.119:18260 24986   2011-03-13 16:10:02.532 -5                  JobQueueReceiver    JSM 6019    4   Audit.RTUsage.JSM       removed com.cognos.jsmcommon.tse.TaskRecord$IDDateStruct@11d16ae from the task queue

164.56.95.119:18260 24986   2011-03-13 16:10:02.545 -5                  JobQueueReceiver    MS  6014    4   Audit.RTUsage.ms.MS     com.cognos.monitor.tse.BiBusRunContext:ctor:

 0A808213019C787C012B0AEE617391740012eb0d6f1c0 7288162

164.56.95.119:18260 24986   2011-03-13 16:10:02.546 -5                  StateMapProcessor   MS  6014    4   Audit.RTUsage.ms.MS     com.cognos.monitor.tse.commands.TaskRunStartedCmd:doAction - 0A808213019C787C012B0AEE61739174

164.56.95.119:18260 24986   2011-03-13 16:10:02.501 -5                  JobQueueReceiver    MS  6014    4   Audit.RTUsage.ms.MS     com.cognos.monitor.queue.JobQueueReceiver:Count ready tasks = 1

I'd like to know if any one of you have ever be so fortunately to have the following features:

  • Able to "filter" unnecessary parts dynamically. i.e., once log file is loaded, you don't have to extract a fraction of it just to focus on that part; you would simply filter on its content and once it is done, everything could be brought back to start another filter process again.

  • current line highlight. This simply because a long line wraps to several, so it is hard to tell where it ends

  • highlight matches in combination of regular-expression based search. I believe lots of editor support this anyway

My last resort is to use Perl or linux commands to make my life easier, but I sincerely hope there are some able log analyzer/editor available right now to save the time :)

Thanks for all the suggestions in advance.

Michael Mao
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3 Answers3

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You may import the logs as CSV files into Microsoft Excel, or into Open Office. I think, this two programs can do everything you need.

Artur Iwan
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  • As long as Excel is a recent enough version. There's a 64k record limit in Excel 2003 e.g. – John Mar 14 '11 at 23:27
  • @John: good point. But if the log is longer than 64k rows, you may split it into some smaller files in any editor, or run it through `grep` first. – Artur Iwan Mar 14 '11 at 23:32
  • Agreed, but OP explicitly was hoping to avoid that: "...i.e., once log file is loaded, you don't have to extract a fraction of it just to focus on that part..." – John Mar 14 '11 at 23:34
  • @John: Sorry, I didn't see that :) – Artur Iwan Mar 14 '11 at 23:37
  • I tend to end up writing code to parse and aggregate data. But, Excel still tends to be the best, quick option for visualizing the data. Though, I would be happier if Excel was smarter about graphing and handling date/time values. – Jim Rush Feb 16 '14 at 04:21
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For Windows, you can use baretail it's very light, easy to configure and works very well.

I don't know if it has all the features you mention but at least it highlights regex matches and you can assign colors.

I haven't found a comparable alternative for other systems yet (E.g. Mac).

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1

Take a look at XpoLog at http://www.xpolog.com I think it provides the required functionality for your needs.