MultiTail lets you view one or multiple files like the original tail program. The difference is that it creates multiple windows on your console (with ncurses). It can also monitor wildcards: if another file matching the wildcard has a more recent modification date, it will automatically switch to that file.
That way you can, for example, monitor a complete directory of files. Merging of 2 or even more logfiles is possible. It can also use colors while displaying the logfiles (through regular expressions), for faster recognition of what is important and what not. It can also filter lines (again with regular expressions).
MultiTail has interactive menus for editing given regular expressions and deleting and adding windows. One can also have windows with the output of shell scripts and other software. When viewing the output of external software, MultiTail can mimic the functionality of tools like 'watch' and such.
Here are some key features of "MultiTail":
· Display logfiles
· More then one in multiple windows
· Terminal window is not only horizontally divided, also vertical is possible
· Height/width of the windows can be set
· Windows can be swapped and closed
· New windows can be created
· The fileselector has "TAB-completion"
· Windows can be temporarily hidden
· Multiple logfiles can be merged into one window
· Logfiles can be filtered with the help of one or more regular expressions
· Certain lines can be suppressed -or- everything is supressed instead of what matches with the regular expressions
· An external tool can be executed when a regular expression matches
· The screen can flash or a beep can be heard when a regular expression matches
· Certain parts of the logfiles can be highlighted via colors.
· Selections with regular expressions.
· Selection on field-number/string offset
· Colorschemes can be defined in a configurationfile. A couple of examples have been included
· Default colorscheme for certain files can be selected in the configurationfile (using regular expressions (NOT wildcards!))
· Use of colors can be switched off
· When a file has changed, the statusline (each logfilewindow has a statusline) is updated to show the new size and the timestamp of the change ('atime')
· Statusline can be switched off
· A message can be shown when the current user has new mail
· Instead of the filename/commandline a more descriptive text can be put in the statusline
· A statusline in the xterm titlebar can be shown:
· Current user
· Current hostname
· Name of changed file
· Timestamp of change
· System load
· "new mail" indicator
· The initial number of lines read can be set
· Instead of the descriptor also the filename can be followed (usefull for situations where "mv log log.old" is done after which a new file 'log' is created)
· It can also monitor wildcards: if another file matching the wildcard has a more recent modification date, it will automatically switch to that file. That way you can, for example, monitor a complete directory of files.
· Not only logfiles, also external programs can be viewed (e.g. the output of netstat)
· Programs can be automatically restarted (like the 'watch' program)
· Restart interval can be set
· The difference since the previous run can be displayed (instead of everything)
· Output can be merged with the output of other programs
· Output can be merged with logfiles
· Output can be colored: see 'logfiles'-section
· Output can be filtered: see 'logfiles'-section
· A statusbar can be shown: see 'logfiles'-section
· One can type in the window of a program, like the 'splitvt' program
· One can scrollback in a window
· All text (including that of the scrollbackbuffer) can be stored in a file
· Size of scrollbackbuffer can be set
· A searchfunction is included (also with regular expressions!)
· A mark can be set so that one can easily see what is new
· The width of a tab can be set
· For lines longer then the width of a window, one can set what to be shown:
· The complete line
· Only the left part
· Only the right part
· A configurable offset
· In case of a 'syslog'-style logfile;
· Everything after the date/time
· Everything after the date/time without the procname
· Update frequency of the display can be set (default: immediately), usefull for slow links
· Some statistics can be shown (update frequency, tendency of the update frequency)
· Bind external programs to keys. For example: one can let MultiTail execute /usr/bin/pine when CTRL+G is pressed. That way MultiTail can act as a central command center.
· Has context-sensitive on-line help (press F1 at any time)
Product's homepage
What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
· This version fixes a segfault which happened when searching for strings with printf escapes in them (e.g., %n).
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