Text / log editor with auto-refresh support

Question

I'm looking for a text editor / log manager of some kind that will automatically refresh a file's contents when it changes.

I have a single target log file (e.g. current.log) that is overwritten under certain circumstances and I'd like to be able to leave it displayed and not constantly have to re-open the file to get updates. Much the same as 'tail --follow=name' does in Linux.

I'm using a Windows desktop but it's a remote file so a Linux app would work just as easily.

Answer 1

You can get tail for Windows, a GUI version of tail which implements the tail -f functionality you're used to.

If you're looking for an actual text editor however, check out Notepad++. It can automatically and silently update a file when it detects changes. Simply enable silent updates in Settings -> Preferences -> MISC:

Answer 2

Baretail is a bit rough, and it hasn't been updated for four years, but it's lightweight-enough that I leave it open on a bunch of Tomcat log files whether I'm using them or not...

Answer 3

Snaketail has great potential for a solution.

Answer 4

I am very pleased with TextPad. It has what you are asking for and a lot more.