[Info-vax] What is your favorite tool lo look at open batch log files? I use a vested ICR LIST from 1988 (binary translated from VAX to Alpha)

[Jon Pinkley]

William P. Wood, Jr. submitted LIST on the VAX82B tape [VAX82B.ICR.LIST]

It is written in RATFIV and VAX MACRO (1982 VAX Macro before Alpha)

In 1988, I resubmitted LIST with two tiny changes, one performance related (return to pre-VMS 4.4 locking behavior) and one to support 39 character file extensions.  This was in the [VAX88A2.JLP.LIST] directory, and it included a backup saveset that had the original ICR VAX82B submission including RATFIV.

When I started using the Alpha in 1995, I just vested the VAX LIST.EXE from 1988 and that's what I've been using since.

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Why I like LIST.  It's a combination of a pager like more/less, with the ability to search forward and backward, jump to specified line numbers (or $ for end of file), and extract with more general pattern matching than VMS SEARCH (but not regex), it caches RFAs (I think every 100th record), so once you have read the file, it is quite quick to reposition to any line number in the file.

The main thing I like about it is that it can read open batch log files, unlike an editor.  And even if the file isn't currently open, if there is a runaway batch job, with a GB log file, it has no problem, as it doesn't try to read the whole file into virtual memory (like TPU).

Even the VESTed image is pretty efficient.

So the question is, what tools do other people use to look at log files that are opened by long running batch jobs?