Java Log Viewer [closed]

Question

Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to debug a program is by going through its long log files.

I searched for a decent log viewer for a while now, and haven't found a real solution. The only program that seemed to be most appropriate was Chainsaw with its Socket connector but after a few short uses the program proved to be buggy and unresponsive at best.

For my purposes, a log viewer should at least be able to mark log levels (for example with different colors) and perform easy filtering based on packages and free-text.

Is there any other (free) log viewer? I'm looking for anything that could work well with log4j.

Topper

Question quite similar as #2590751 – Scutch

Answer 1

You didn't mention an OS, so I'll mention this though it is only on Windows.

Bare Metal Software makes a product called BareTail that has a nice interface and works well. They have a free version with a startup nag screen, a licensed version with no nag, and a pro version with additional features. It has configurable highlighting based on matching lines against keywords.

They also have a BareGrep product too, which provides similar grep capabilities. Both are excellent and very stable and better than anything I've seen on Windows. I liked them so much I bought the bundle with both pro versions for $50.

Impulse

well free version doesn't support searching inside log and you even can't copy any text from log... so it's pain to use log-expert.de is the same plus features above – Felonious

Answer 2

Just wanted to say that I've finally found a tool that I can get along with just fine...

It's called LogExpert (see http://www.log-expert.de/) and is free. Besides the usual tail function, it also has a filter and a search function - two crucial things that are missing from BareTail. And if you happen to want to customize the way it parses columns further, it's dead simple. Just implement an interface in .NET and you're done (and I'm a Java/Flex programmer...)

Topper

I'm using Log Expert since a while. It is the best I've seen on windows. But I still don't seem to figure out how to use some of its functionality. For Like error coloring/highlighting. – Heterotopia

Good: Supports well the textual default output of Log4net/Log4x. Real-time log meter on the tabs and customizable alerts. Timeline view (enabled in options). Bad: Doesn't yet handle well Log4j XML format and you'll have to configure the colors yourself. A few minor bugs left. – Cleaves

Good Tool, but someone knows if exists one option to "Clear" the current log view? Bookmarks can help but I think a "Clear" option (as Eclipse console) can be appropiate to track better the current execution. – Palaeography

Bad: unfortuantely display problems with files >100MB Good: same highlighing functions as baretail – Exocentric

Answer 3

I'm using OtrosLogViewer. You can mark log events manually or using string/regular expression. You can filter events based on level, time thread, string or regular expression. Logs can be imported by listening on socket or connecting to Log4j SocketHubAppender

You can take a look at Youtube video or screenshots:

Disclaimer: I am the author of OtrosLogViewer

Milligram

I have migrated from Chainsaw to OtrosLogViewer some time ago. Easy filtering based on string or regular expression is the great feature. I have created my own filter (based on application business logic) and added to OtrosLogViewer as a plugin! – Milligram

I love this ! Really like the fact that you can add custom Log4j PatternLayout patterns to columnize logs (See this) – Glyceryl

It is quite nice, but sometimes (especially new versions) confusing. Also I have a simple JUL log that it says it cannot parse, and I don't think it is that cryptic... 16-Mar-2017 17:04:56.275 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.webbeans.config.BeansDeployer.validateInjectionPoints All injection points were validated successfully. – Patel

Answer 4

I am using Notepad++ with my custom log file highlighting UDL. Looks like this:

Sparge

fix.lazyjeff.com/2011/11/how-to-tail-file-in-windows-using.html – Incoordinate

@Incoordinate Thank you for the link. I prefer Notepad++ to Baretail personally. Custom UDL + Document Monitor Plugin works great together. – Sparge

Notepad++can't handle big log files :( – Monetary

Answer 5

You can try logFaces, it has fantastic real-time log viewer based on eclipse-like design.

Disclosure: I am the author of this product.

Farouche

To run logFaces you need to install a central logserver. But the user just asks for a log viewer. – Chapiter

@ifischer - No. logFaces viewer can work in server mode, this way you don't need central server installed and your appenders talk directly to the viewer sockets. – Farouche

Can I just open a jboss log file with this app and tail it? – Gravois

Answer 6

Consider to use Log4j viewer eclipse plugin - that was fork of Ganemede plugin in the begging and now have more features and stability was improved significantly, and still in active development and free :)

Devilry

Answer 7

I've always used 'tail -f | grep re' or occasionaly 'awk'.

Tobar

I'm not a big 'tail' expert, but AFAIK it won't be easy (or possible) to color log levels and/or filter by package name... – Topper

If you want a command line 'tail' program with ANSI color support, try: multitail -sC log4j -f logfile.log – Hirza

just a note, on my version of multitail, there is no space after -sC: eg: multitail -Cslog4j -f run.log – Acro

Answer 8

LogSaw based on Eclipse and free. Log4j log file analyzer, simple to use with easy filtering. Supports several flavors of log4j log files: JBoss, Log4j pattern layout, Log4j XML layout, WebSphere.

Works like a charm. After couple of hours googling and trying several recommended free log4j viewers, this one was pleasant surprise. Have tried Chainsaw, BareTail, Insight, LogExpert, logview4j.

It is released weeks ago, and I guess still builds its way up on google.

Shatter

Answer 9

I've rolled out Splunk (http://www.splunk.com/) for log viewing and searching with great success. The free version can be used locally and the paid version can collect all your logs into one location. We use it mostly for Log4J logs but with lots of other formats as well.

Beyond tail and grep support (without needing to know grep...) it automatically indexes logs and allows easy analysis (e.g. # of events in last xx timeframe) as well as basic charting, alerting, and event aggregation.

I won't say that the app is perfect or that the company has matured yet. But I don't hesitate at all to recommend that you try it.

Anticipative

Answer 10

I'll add that for Windows, WireShark makes for a handy syslog viewer, ironically enough. I've tried several other syslog tools, and really, Kiwi is the best for syslog out there, but the "free" version is a bit nerfed. Others I ran into were either poorly programmed (crashing on minor issues -- logview4net), had a poor interface (Star SysLog Daemon Lite), or didn't even run (nxlog)

You can use WireShark's filter language to drill down on log data. It's overkill, but until someone writes a free syslog viewer/collector for Windows and makes it decent, this is one field that will be a hard one for most people.

Example:

# Display level 6 alerts from 192.168.5.90 in WireShark
syslog.level == 6 && ip.addr == 192.168.5.90

Gatlin

Answer 11

LogMX is a crossplatform tool that parses any log format from any source, then displays log entries with many features. By default, it handles formats like Log4j, LogFactor, syslog,... and can read from local file or SFTP, FTP, HTTP... but you can write your own pluggins if your format is another one or if your logs cannot be accessed through classical protocols.

You can monitor logs in realtime like 'tail' or load a whole log file and stop monitoring it.

www.logmx.com

Refection

Answer 12

Depending on what platform you are running on and what other log viewing tools you have available, you can just use the appropriate log4j appender (syslog, Windows Event Logger) and just use your platform log viewing tools.

Other than that I have usually seen custom solutions developed.

Something that will drive your solution is what your overall system is like. Are you trying to aggregate logs from several computers? Or just view the logs from a single remote process?

Amazement

I'm referring to textual log files that are located on the same machine. What I need to do is filter the information from the log file easily. What kind of custom solutions are you talking about? – Topper

Basically replicating something along the lines of Chainsaw. I've done it where logs from multiple computers all go to a database and there's a little web UI for querying the DB. – Amazement

Answer 13

You may want to use a custom log viewer that just works on files. I like Kiwi Log Viewer or Ganymede (an Eclipse plugin), but it's not hard to put a simple Swing app together that reads from the socket.

Maupassant

Answer 14

Take a look to http://jlogviewer.sourceforge.net/ or http://sourceforge.net/projects/jlogviewer/ Java log viewer is lightweight GUI to easily view the java application logs generated by the "java.util.logging" package. It's open source!!

Streaky

Tried it, but threw exceptions when I tried to open any log. – Ezraezri

Answer 15

You can use MindTree Insight, it is open source, efficient, and specific for that use case : analyze log4j files.

Scutch

Answer 16

I have written a custom tool for that: https://plus.google.com/u/0/102275357970232913798/posts/Fsu6qftH2ja

Alfa is a GUI tool for analyzing log files. Usually you are forced to search for data in them using editors. You open a log, press Ctrl-F and the "Next" button again and again, then reload the file as it was modified, and repeat the search. Alfa maps a log file to a database allowing you to use standard SQL queries to get data without any superfluous actions.

UPD: Google killed Google+ so please use other link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-hYEtveqA0aN1E3Ul9NVlFlYWM

Warrant

Answer 17

Another good log viewer is Lilith (http://sourceforge.net/projects/lilith/ and http://lilithapp.com/). It is open source and works well with Logback, log4j & java.util.logging.

Roche

Answer 18

Just published a node module for color highlighting log output log-color-highlight.

echo "this string" | lch -red.bold this -blue string

Works well on unix/linux/windows and supports config file for complex logging scenarios.

For windows I use it in combination with file-tail

Living