Unix Tail Command on Windows to Print Live Logging

-
Show live logs in windows

Windows is a great operating system for day-to-day use, but there are some things in Linux and Unix that Windows doesn't have out of the box. For example, when I need to SSH into a Linux server, I often want to view log files using the tail command. Unfortunately, Windows doesn't have a native tail command. However, we can create our own function to mimic this simple tail operation using PowerShell.

Using Get-Content
Get-Content -Path logfile.txt -Wait

To mimic the Unix-like tail -f command in PowerShell permanently, you can create a custom function in your PowerShell profile.

1. Open PowerShell or Windows Terminal: First, open Windows PowerShell or Windows Terminal and ensure you're using PowerShell.

2. Modify Your PowerShell Profile: Your PowerShell profile is a script that runs every time you start a new PowerShell session. To edit this profile, open it with any text editor. The profile is typically located at Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1.

3. Create a PowerShell Profile if It Doesn't Exist: If you don't have a profile file yet, you can create one with the following command:
New-Item -Path $PROFILE -ItemType File -Force
4. Add the Tail Function: Now, add the following function to your profile script:
function tail {
    param (
        [Parameter(Position=0, Mandatory=$true)]
        [string]$FilePath,

        [Parameter(Position=1)]
        [int]$n = 10,

        [switch]$f
    )

    if ($f) {
        Get-Content -Path $FilePath -Wait -Tail $n
    } else {
        Get-Content -Path $FilePath -Tail $n
    }
}

5. Reload the Profile: After saving the profile script, reload it to make the function available in your current session:
. $PROFILE

6. Test Your Tail Function: You can now use the tail function similarly to how you would on a Unix-like system. For example:
tail "logs.out" -n 100 -f
Remember, this is just a simple imitation of the tail command, not a full replacement. It mainly creates an alias to the Get-Content command in PowerShell and supports the -f (follow) and -n (number of lines) parameters.

I hope this would be helpfull! As someone who uses Windows OS for day-to-day operations, I find it to be the best operating system for me. I've tried Mac and Ubuntu, but I've never felt as comfortable as I do with Windows. However, I do acknowledge that Windows can be less terminal-friendly compared to Linux because DOS commands are quite different. As a developer, I often use Linux for servers and feel more comfortable with Linux commands, but having these tweaks in Windows helps bridge the gap.

Popular posts from this blog

ERROR 1348 Column Password Is Not Updatable When Updating MySQL Root Password

-
Image
MySQL and MariaDB password As already mentioned in the title of this blog, this error message sometimes occurred when we are trying to update our root password database, either MySQL or MariaDB, The error says: ERROR 1348 (HY000): Column 'Password' is not updatable This is because if we use this SQL command to update our database root password, and it turn out to be Restricted by MySQL to use update on mysql database. UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('1234') WHERE User='root'; The solutions for MySQL Error1348 So you can not update a user password using Update commands, to update the password, use ALTER commands instead. like the following. ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '1234'; And then you need to do the flush privileges to commit previous queries (that alter command above) into the system, simply do like this. flush privileges; So now you have your root with password 1234. Although it is recommended to...
Read more

How To Create Spring Boot Project Using Netbeans

-
Image
Spring Boot is a handy tool that simplifies the development of Spring Framework applications by reducing the need for cumbersome configuration. In this tutorial, I'll guide you through creating a Spring Boot application using the Netbeans IDE. While you can certainly create a Spring Boot application in Netbeans manually, it's much easier with a plugin designed for Spring development. Here's a step-by-step guide to get you started: 1. Install the Spring Boot Plugin: Open Netbeans and navigate to the Tools menu. Click on "Plugins." Once the Plugins window opens, select the "Available Plugins" tab. Look for the "Nb SpringBoot" plugin, then install and activate it. 2. Create a New Spring Boot Project: After restarting Netbeans IDE, you can create a new project with Spring Boot. Go to File > New Project. Under Categories, select Maven, then choose "Spring Boot Basic." 3. Add Dependencies: With your new project created, open the po...
Read more

Spring Kafka - How to use ReplyingKafkaTemplate send and reply synchronously

-
Image
Microservice Spring with Apache Kafka Today, I want to share how to use Kafka. It's quite interesting once you get the hang of it, and I hope my explanation will make it a bit easier for you. So, Kafka is primarily known as an asynchronous messaging queuing system. This means it allows different parts of your application to communicate with each other without waiting for immediate responses. However, there are times when you might need a more immediate reply from another service in your project. Luckily, Kafka can handle this too. Here’s how it works: The client side sends a message to the server side via Kafka. This message includes a special identifier in the Kafka header request, known as KafkaHeaders.CORRELATION_ID, along with a topic where the server should respond. The server, after processing the request, sends a message back to the same topic with the same correlation ID. This way, the client knows that the message is a response to its initial request and can act accordingl...
Read more