frontail is a Node.js application that streams file contents to a web browser as new lines are written. It provides a graphical alternative to following files in a terminal, with a live display that can be accessed through a browser.
The application is designed for monitoring services, development environments and other workloads where diagnostic information changes continuously. It can read multiple files and accept piped input, presenting the resulting output through a responsive interface.
frontail supports custom highlighting and display preferences, allowing important messages to be identified more easily. It also offers configurable network access and basic authentication for controlling who can view the output.
The application collects anonymous usage statistics through Google Analytics by default. Administrators can disable this behaviour with the –disable-usage-stats option. The upstream code has not received significant development in recent years.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Streams appended file contents to a browser in real time.
- Supports following multiple files and accepting standard input.
- Handles file rotation on supported Unix-like systems.
- Provides automatic scrolling with the option to pause the display.
- Supports text searching and browser-side filtering.
- Offers custom highlighting rules for words and entire lines.
- Includes predefined highlighting styles for general output, npm and Python.
- Provides light and dark interface themes.
- Allows important lines to be marked for later reference.
- Displays the number of unread lines in the browser favicon.
- Supports basic authentication and HTTPS using supplied certificates.
- Allows the listening address, port and URL path to be configured.
- Provides options for controlling the number of retained and initially displayed lines.
- Supports disabling anonymous usage statistics.
Website: github.com/mthenw/frontail
Support:
Developer: Maciej Winnicki
License: MIT License
frontail is written in JavaScript. Learn JavaScript with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
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|---|---|
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| frontail | Stream and filter live output in your web browser |
| Giant Log Viewer | Open enormous text files without loading them into memory |
| LogNote | Inspect files, command output and Android logcat with flexible filters |
| Chipmunk | Analyse multi-gigabyte files quickly with a responsive graphical interface |
| QLogExplorer | Explore very large files with advanced searches and JSON support |
| glogg | Graphical grep-style searching for very large files |
| Xlogmaster | Monitor files, devices and command output with event-triggered actions |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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