A Windows equivalent of the Unix tail command

Question

I m looking for the equivalent of the Unix  tail  command that will allow me to watch the output of a log file while it is being written to

User · Answer

In Far Manager  press F3 on a file to enter the standard viewer  then the End key to navigate to the end of file    If the file is updated  Far Manager will scroll it automatically

User · Answer

Try Windows Services for UNIX  Provides shells  awk  sed  etc  as well as tail     Update -  Unfortunately  as of 2019 this system is no longer available on the Microsoft Download Center

User · Answer

I d suggest installing something like GNU Utilities for Win32   It has most favourites  including tail

User · Answer

Try Windows Services for UNIX  Provides shells  awk  sed  etc  as well as tail     Update -  Unfortunately  as of 2019 this system is no longer available on the Microsoft Download Center

User · Answer

With Windows PowerShell you can use   Get-Content  lt file gt  -Wait

User · Answer

DOS has no tail command  you can download a Windows binary for GNU tail and other GNU tools here

User · Answer

Try Windows Services for UNIX  Provides shells  awk  sed  etc  as well as tail     Update -  Unfortunately  as of 2019 this system is no longer available on the Microsoft Download Center

User · Answer

You can get tail as part of Cygwin

User · Answer

You can get tail as part of Cygwin

User · Answer

I prefer TailMe because of the possibility to watch several log files simultaneously in one window  http   www dschensky de Software Staff tailme en htm

User · Answer

I ve always used Baretail for tailing in Windows  It s free and pretty nice   Edit  for a better description of Baretail see this question

User · Answer

I just wrote this little batch script  It isn t as sophisticated as the Unix  tail   but hopefully someone can add on to it to improve it  like limiting the output to the last 10 lines of the file  etc  If you do improve this script  please send it to me at robbing   at   gmail com    echo off     This is a batch script I wrote to mimic the  tail  UNIX command     It is far from perfect  but I am posting it in the hopes that it will    be improved by other people  This was designed to work on Windows 7     I have not tested it on any other versions of Windows  if   1        goto noarg if   1          goto help if   1      -   goto help if NOT EXIST  1 goto notfound set taildelay  2 if   taildelay       set taildelay 1   loop cls type  1     I use the CHOICE command to create a delay in batch   CHOICE  C YN  D Y  N  T  taildelay  goto loop     Error handlers   noarg echo No arguments given  Try    for help  goto die   notfound echo The file   1  could not be found  goto die     Help text   help echo TAIL filename  seconds      I use the call more pipe as a way to insert blank lines since echo  doesnt    seem to work on Windows 7  call   more echo Description  echo     This is a Windows version of the UNIX  tail  command  echo     Written completely from scratch by Andrey G  call   more echo Parameters  echo    filename             The name of the file to display call   more echo     seconds             The number of seconds to delay before reloading the echo                         file and displaying it again  Default is set to 1 call   more echo                          Displays this help message call   more echo    NOTE  echo    To exit while TAIL is running  press CTRL C  call   more echo Example  echo    TAIL foo 5 call   more echo    Will display the contents of the file  foo   echo    refreshing every 5 seconds  call   more     This is the end   die

User · Answer

Install MKS Toolkit    So that you can run all Unix commands on Windows   The command is   tail -f  lt file-name gt

User · Answer

I prefer TailMe because of the possibility to watch several log files simultaneously in one window  http   www dschensky de Software Staff tailme en htm

User · Answer

Another option would be to install MSYS  which is more leightweight than Cygwin

User · Answer

If you use PowerShell then this works    Get-Content filenamehere -Wait -Tail 30   Posting Stefan s comment from below  so people don t miss it    PowerShell 3 introduces a -Tail parameter to include only the last x lines

User · Answer

I ve used Tail For Windows   Certainly not as elegant as using tail but then  you re using Windows

User · Answer

Download the tail command  part of Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools from Microsoft itself

User · Answer

DOS has no tail command  you can download a Windows binary for GNU tail and other GNU tools here

User · Answer

DOS s type works like  nux s cat  though just like cat  it does dump the whole file  so it s not really a true tail  but it s going to be available in a pinch without downloading installing a true tail substitute

User · Answer

The tail command and many others are available in the Windows Resource Kit Tools package

User · Answer

If you do not want to install anything at all you can  build your own  batch file that does the job from standard Windows commands  Here are some pointers as to how to do it   1  Using find  c  v    yourinput file  get the number of lines in your input file  The output is something like   ---------- T TXT  15   2  Using for  f  parse this output to get the number 15   3  Using set  a  calculate the number of head lines that needs to be skipped  4  Using for  f  skip n  skip the head lines and echo process the tail lines   If I find the time  I will build such a batch file and post it back here   EDIT  tail bat  REM tail bat REM REM Usage  tail bat  lt file gt   lt number-of-lines gt   REM REM Examples  tail bat myfile txt 10 REM           tail bat  C  My File With Spaces txt  10   ECHO OFF for  f  tokens 2-3 delims      f in   find  c  v     1   do       for   F in    f   g  do set nbLines   F   set  a nbSkippedLines  nbLines - 2 for  f  usebackq skip  nbSkippedLines  delims     d in   1  do echo   d

User · Answer

Another option would be to install MSYS  which is more leightweight than Cygwin

User · Answer

I haven t seen Log Expert anywhere among answers here   It s customizable and is quite good for going around log files  So far it s the best Windows graphical log viewer for me   Unfortunately  this software is no longer available   You can read about it on archive org

User · Answer

I haven t seen Log Expert anywhere among answers here   It s customizable and is quite good for going around log files  So far it s the best Windows graphical log viewer for me   Unfortunately  this software is no longer available   You can read about it on archive org

User · Answer

I ve always used Baretail for tailing in Windows  It s free and pretty nice   Edit  for a better description of Baretail see this question

User · Answer

If you want to use Win32 ports of some Unix utilities  rather than installing Cygwin   I recommend GNU utilities for Win32   Lighter weight than Cygwin and more portable

User · Answer

Anybody interested in a DOS CMD tail using batch commands  see below    It s not prefect  and lines sometime repeat   Usage  tail bat -d          tail bat -f -f    echo off SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION rem tail bat -d  lt lines gt   lt file gt  rem tail bat -f  lt file gt   rem        MAIN        IF   1    -d  GOTO displayfile IF   1    -f  GOTO followfile  GOTO end  rem              rem Show Last n lines of file rem                displayfile SET skiplines  2 SET sourcefile  3  rem     Get the current line count of file     FOR  F  usebackq tokens 3 3 delims      l IN   find  c  v     sourcefile    DO  call SET find lc   l   rem     Calculate the lines to skip SET  A skiplines  find lc - skiplines   rem     Display to screen line needed more   skiplines   sourcefile   GOTO end  rem              rem Show Last n lines of file  amp  follow output rem                followfile SET skiplines 0 SET findend lc 0 SET sourcefile  2   followloop rem     Get the current line count of file     FOR  F  usebackq tokens 3 3 delims      l IN   find  c  v     sourcefile    DO  call SET find lc   l  FOR  F  usebackq tokens 3 3 delims      l IN   find  c  v     sourcefile    DO  call SET findend lc   l   rem     Calculate the lines to skip SET  A skiplines  findend lc - find lc  SET  A skiplines  find lc - skiplines   rem     Display to screen line when file updated more   skiplines   sourcefile   goto followloop   end

User · Answer

If you do not want to install anything at all you can  build your own  batch file that does the job from standard Windows commands  Here are some pointers as to how to do it   1  Using find  c  v    yourinput file  get the number of lines in your input file  The output is something like   ---------- T TXT  15   2  Using for  f  parse this output to get the number 15   3  Using set  a  calculate the number of head lines that needs to be skipped  4  Using for  f  skip n  skip the head lines and echo process the tail lines   If I find the time  I will build such a batch file and post it back here   EDIT  tail bat  REM tail bat REM REM Usage  tail bat  lt file gt   lt number-of-lines gt   REM REM Examples  tail bat myfile txt 10 REM           tail bat  C  My File With Spaces txt  10   ECHO OFF for  f  tokens 2-3 delims      f in   find  c  v     1   do       for   F in    f   g  do set nbLines   F   set  a nbSkippedLines  nbLines - 2 for  f  usebackq skip  nbSkippedLines  delims     d in   1  do echo   d

User · Answer

Download the tail command  part of Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools from Microsoft itself

User · Answer

If you do not want to install anything at all you can  build your own  batch file that does the job from standard Windows commands  Here are some pointers as to how to do it   1  Using find  c  v    yourinput file  get the number of lines in your input file  The output is something like   ---------- T TXT  15   2  Using for  f  parse this output to get the number 15   3  Using set  a  calculate the number of head lines that needs to be skipped  4  Using for  f  skip n  skip the head lines and echo process the tail lines   If I find the time  I will build such a batch file and post it back here   EDIT  tail bat  REM tail bat REM REM Usage  tail bat  lt file gt   lt number-of-lines gt   REM REM Examples  tail bat myfile txt 10 REM           tail bat  C  My File With Spaces txt  10   ECHO OFF for  f  tokens 2-3 delims      f in   find  c  v     1   do       for   F in    f   g  do set nbLines   F   set  a nbSkippedLines  nbLines - 2 for  f  usebackq skip  nbSkippedLines  delims     d in   1  do echo   d

User · Answer

If you use PowerShell then this works    Get-Content filenamehere -Wait -Tail 30   Posting Stefan s comment from below  so people don t miss it    PowerShell 3 introduces a -Tail parameter to include only the last x lines

User · Answer

If you do not want to install anything at all you can  build your own  batch file that does the job from standard Windows commands  Here are some pointers as to how to do it   1  Using find  c  v    yourinput file  get the number of lines in your input file  The output is something like   ---------- T TXT  15   2  Using for  f  parse this output to get the number 15   3  Using set  a  calculate the number of head lines that needs to be skipped  4  Using for  f  skip n  skip the head lines and echo process the tail lines   If I find the time  I will build such a batch file and post it back here   EDIT  tail bat  REM tail bat REM REM Usage  tail bat  lt file gt   lt number-of-lines gt   REM REM Examples  tail bat myfile txt 10 REM           tail bat  C  My File With Spaces txt  10   ECHO OFF for  f  tokens 2-3 delims      f in   find  c  v     1   do       for   F in    f   g  do set nbLines   F   set  a nbSkippedLines  nbLines - 2 for  f  usebackq skip  nbSkippedLines  delims     d in   1  do echo   d

User · Answer

If you use PowerShell then this works    Get-Content filenamehere -Wait -Tail 30   Posting Stefan s comment from below  so people don t miss it    PowerShell 3 introduces a -Tail parameter to include only the last x lines

User · Answer

You can get tail as part of Cygwin

User · Answer

The tail command and many others are available in the Windows Resource Kit Tools package

User · Answer

I d suggest installing something like GNU Utilities for Win32   It has most favourites  including tail

User · Answer

Graphical log viewers  while they might be very good for viewing log files  don t meet the need for a command line utility that can be incorporated into scripts  or batch files    Often such a simple and general-purpose command can be used as part of a specialized solution for a particular environment   Graphical methods don t lend themselves readily to such use

User · Answer

I ve used Tail For Windows   Certainly not as elegant as using tail but then  you re using Windows

User · Answer

Install MKS Toolkit    So that you can run all Unix commands on Windows   The command is   tail -f  lt file-name gt

User · Answer

With Windows PowerShell you can use   Get-Content  lt file gt  -Wait

User · Answer

You can try WinTail as well

User · Answer

I think I have found a utility that meets the need for the tail function in batch files   It s called  mtee   and it s free   I ve incorporated it into a batch file I m working on and it does the job very nicely   Just make sure to put the executable into a directory in the PATH statement  and away you go   Here s the link   mtee

User · Answer

There are quite a number of options  however all of them have flaws with more advanced features      GnuWin32 tail is buggy  a       - things like -f just plain don t work  UnxUtils tail seems better  -f works  but --pid seems not to  -n but not --lines n fails with -f   but appears to be a dead project  Cygwin is a big ugly mush  could perhaps just use the DLL and coreutils package - but still has problems like --pid not working with native win32 processes

User · Answer

Anybody interested in a DOS CMD tail using batch commands  see below    It s not prefect  and lines sometime repeat   Usage  tail bat -d          tail bat -f -f    echo off SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION rem tail bat -d  lt lines gt   lt file gt  rem tail bat -f  lt file gt   rem        MAIN        IF   1    -d  GOTO displayfile IF   1    -f  GOTO followfile  GOTO end  rem              rem Show Last n lines of file rem                displayfile SET skiplines  2 SET sourcefile  3  rem     Get the current line count of file     FOR  F  usebackq tokens 3 3 delims      l IN   find  c  v     sourcefile    DO  call SET find lc   l   rem     Calculate the lines to skip SET  A skiplines  find lc - skiplines   rem     Display to screen line needed more   skiplines   sourcefile   GOTO end  rem              rem Show Last n lines of file  amp  follow output rem                followfile SET skiplines 0 SET findend lc 0 SET sourcefile  2   followloop rem     Get the current line count of file     FOR  F  usebackq tokens 3 3 delims      l IN   find  c  v     sourcefile    DO  call SET find lc   l  FOR  F  usebackq tokens 3 3 delims      l IN   find  c  v     sourcefile    DO  call SET findend lc   l   rem     Calculate the lines to skip SET  A skiplines  findend lc - find lc  SET  A skiplines  find lc - skiplines   rem     Display to screen line when file updated more   skiplines   sourcefile   goto followloop   end

User · Answer

I ve always used Baretail for tailing in Windows  It s free and pretty nice   Edit  for a better description of Baretail see this question

User · Answer

There are quite a number of options  however all of them have flaws with more advanced features      GnuWin32 tail is buggy  a       - things like -f just plain don t work  UnxUtils tail seems better  -f works  but --pid seems not to  -n but not --lines n fails with -f   but appears to be a dead project  Cygwin is a big ugly mush  could perhaps just use the DLL and coreutils package - but still has problems like --pid not working with native win32 processes

User · Answer

If you want to use Win32 ports of some Unix utilities  rather than installing Cygwin   I recommend GNU utilities for Win32   Lighter weight than Cygwin and more portable

User · Answer

DOS s type works like  nux s cat  though just like cat  it does dump the whole file  so it s not really a true tail  but it s going to be available in a pinch without downloading installing a true tail substitute

User · Answer

I d suggest installing something like GNU Utilities for Win32   It has most favourites  including tail

User · Answer

There are quite a number of options  however all of them have flaws with more advanced features      GnuWin32 tail is buggy  a       - things like -f just plain don t work  UnxUtils tail seems better  -f works  but --pid seems not to  -n but not --lines n fails with -f   but appears to be a dead project  Cygwin is a big ugly mush  could perhaps just use the DLL and coreutils package - but still has problems like --pid not working with native win32 processes

User · Answer

In Far Manager  press F3 on a file to enter the standard viewer  then the End key to navigate to the end of file    If the file is updated  Far Manager will scroll it automatically

User · Answer

You can get tail as part of Cygwin

User · Answer

I ve used Tail For Windows   Certainly not as elegant as using tail but then  you re using Windows

User · Answer

I m using Kiwi Log Viewer  It s free

User · Answer

I d suggest installing something like GNU Utilities for Win32   It has most favourites  including tail

User · Answer

I ve used Tail For Windows   Certainly not as elegant as using tail but then  you re using Windows

User · Answer

I just wrote this little batch script  It isn t as sophisticated as the Unix  tail   but hopefully someone can add on to it to improve it  like limiting the output to the last 10 lines of the file  etc  If you do improve this script  please send it to me at robbing   at   gmail com    echo off     This is a batch script I wrote to mimic the  tail  UNIX command     It is far from perfect  but I am posting it in the hopes that it will    be improved by other people  This was designed to work on Windows 7     I have not tested it on any other versions of Windows  if   1        goto noarg if   1          goto help if   1      -   goto help if NOT EXIST  1 goto notfound set taildelay  2 if   taildelay       set taildelay 1   loop cls type  1     I use the CHOICE command to create a delay in batch   CHOICE  C YN  D Y  N  T  taildelay  goto loop     Error handlers   noarg echo No arguments given  Try    for help  goto die   notfound echo The file   1  could not be found  goto die     Help text   help echo TAIL filename  seconds      I use the call more pipe as a way to insert blank lines since echo  doesnt    seem to work on Windows 7  call   more echo Description  echo     This is a Windows version of the UNIX  tail  command  echo     Written completely from scratch by Andrey G  call   more echo Parameters  echo    filename             The name of the file to display call   more echo     seconds             The number of seconds to delay before reloading the echo                         file and displaying it again  Default is set to 1 call   more echo                          Displays this help message call   more echo    NOTE  echo    To exit while TAIL is running  press CTRL C  call   more echo Example  echo    TAIL foo 5 call   more echo    Will display the contents of the file  foo   echo    refreshing every 5 seconds  call   more     This is the end   die

User · Answer

I think I have found a utility that meets the need for the tail function in batch files   It s called  mtee   and it s free   I ve incorporated it into a batch file I m working on and it does the job very nicely   Just make sure to put the executable into a directory in the PATH statement  and away you go   Here s the link   mtee

User · Answer

If you want to use Win32 ports of some Unix utilities  rather than installing Cygwin   I recommend GNU utilities for Win32   Lighter weight than Cygwin and more portable

User · Answer

I ve used Mtail recently and it seems to work well  This is the GUI type like baretail mentioned above

User · Answer

You can try WinTail as well

User · Answer

There are quite a number of options  however all of them have flaws with more advanced features      GnuWin32 tail is buggy  a       - things like -f just plain don t work  UnxUtils tail seems better  -f works  but --pid seems not to  -n but not --lines n fails with -f   but appears to be a dead project  Cygwin is a big ugly mush  could perhaps just use the DLL and coreutils package - but still has problems like --pid not working with native win32 processes

User · Answer

I ve always used Baretail for tailing in Windows  It s free and pretty nice   Edit  for a better description of Baretail see this question

User · Answer

I m using Kiwi Log Viewer  It s free

User · Answer

If you use PowerShell then this works    Get-Content filenamehere -Wait -Tail 30   Posting Stefan s comment from below  so people don t miss it    PowerShell 3 introduces a -Tail parameter to include only the last x lines

User · Answer

If you want to use Win32 ports of some Unix utilities  rather than installing Cygwin   I recommend GNU utilities for Win32   Lighter weight than Cygwin and more portable

User · Answer

I ve used Mtail recently and it seems to work well  This is the GUI type like baretail mentioned above

User · Answer

Try Windows Services for UNIX  Provides shells  awk  sed  etc  as well as tail     Update -  Unfortunately  as of 2019 this system is no longer available on the Microsoft Download Center

User · Answer

Graphical log viewers  while they might be very good for viewing log files  don t meet the need for a command line utility that can be incorporated into scripts  or batch files    Often such a simple and general-purpose command can be used as part of a specialized solution for a particular environment   Graphical methods don t lend themselves readily to such use

[windows] A Windows equivalent of the Unix tail command

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Examples related to tail