4.6.18. NppExec's Console as a Log Viewer

[the idea was originally proposed by mischlrebl as "show and reload file content periodically" here: https://github.com/d0vgan/nppexec/issues/101]

[ mischlrebl: ]

I am wondering if it is possible to watch and track a log file in the Console - like the "Monitoring (tail -f)" function in Notepad++?

It would be very handy to work with split screen on the files and to see the messages below.

[ DV: ]

The closest built-in command in NppExec is con_load, though it loads an entire file into the Console window.

To achieve your goal, you may probably run some external log viewer/watcher implemented as a console application in NppExec's Console.

This version of tail works good in NppExec's Console: https://github.com/JavaScriptDude/cygtail
On the cygtail's project page, click the <>Code button and then click Download ZIP there.
After downloading and extracting the binaries, this command will do the job:

tail -f log.txt

BusyBox for Windows also works good in NppExec's Console: https://frippery.org/busybox/
Once downloaded, this command will do the job:

busybox tail -f log.txt

As I had never thought about NppExec in terms of log viewing, I asked mischlrebl for more details of this use-case.
And here are the resulting images that speak for themselves:

It may also be useful to have one instance of NppExec working as a Log Viewer and another instance of NppExec handling commands and scripts.
Refer to "Using several copies of NppExec" [2.4] for details.

See also: Clipboard, keystrokes and much more [4.6.8]; Notepad++ as a Clipboard Monitor [4.6.14].