When the logfiles are set up and are accepting the messages, the next step is to see what is logged into the logfiles. This recipe will show you how to efficiently edit the logfiles. For example, we need to edit the logfiles in case we diagnose a problem and we need to send an excerpt of the logs to the support center. We also need to edit the logfiles when we search for some particular line of log.
All the logging made in Oracle SOA Suite is somehow file-based, except the console logger:
- In order to edit a logfile, we first have to identify the location of the logfile.
- When we find the location, we can use the Windows native editors such as Notepad and WordPad or some freeware editors such as PSPad and Notepad++.
notepad AdminServer-diagnostic.log
- When the logfiles are open, you can browse for the information you are looking for. However, note that editing is meant in a sense of viewing and searching and not changing the content of a logfile.
In time, the number of logfiles will grow and can easily exceed several hundred Megabytes. In situations where we deal with big logfiles, we need a different approach in the editing logfiles. One utility worth mentioning is tail. For UNIX systems, this is a standard utility.
For Windows systems, there is a port project that you can find at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tailforwin32/?source=dlp.
Another utility called Bare Tail can also be used, and it can be found at http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baretail/.
To edit the logfile with the tail utility, issue the following command:
<tail_install_dir>Tail.exe -f AdminServer-diagnostic.log
We get the window of tail with the logfile edited. New messages are coming in at the bottom of the logfile as shown in the following screenshot:
