Watch (tail) the umbraco Log file with powershell

Situation

Sometimes you want to watch the umbraco Log file.  You doubelclick the file in explorer time after time.  Scroll down and look what was added on the bottom.  If you ar lazier (smarter?), then you would open WebMatrix or Visual studio leave the file open and just click yes when it reloads.

If you are still looking for the log files: go to /app_Data/Logs/UmbracoTraceLog.txt

Watching while it moves?

if you ever used linux then you are probably already missing the TAIL command for ages.  We have a solution: powershell to the rescue!  Make sure you have installed powershell version 3.

Then create a new powershell file (eg. mylogviewer.ps1) in the root of the website. Paste in the code below: 

gc App_Data\Logs\UmbracoTraceLog.txt -Tail 10 -Wait

When you run this powershell command, you will see the that powershell stays active and will update the screen as soon as new lines arrive in your LogFile.  If you don't want to create the file yourself, i have added it compressed below.

LogTail.zip (170.00 bytes)