Open a 10 GB log file without freezing
Notepad++ warns that a file over 2 GB may take minutes to open, VS Code keeps the whole file in memory, and both can freeze on a big log. BigText reads only what is on screen, so a 10 GB or 50 GB log opens at once and uses about 100 MB of memory.
Step by step
Open it
Use File → Open, drag the file onto the window, or run
bigtext app.login a terminal (bigtext app.log:120opens it at line 120). Logs compressed with .gz or .zst open directly.Jump around
Ctrl+Endgoes to the last line at once. Go to line (Ctrl+G) works before the line index is finished; until then line numbers carry a~. Go to time (Ctrl+Shift+T) takes14:32:05and lands on the first line at that time.Find the errors
The level bar above a log filters the ERROR, WARN, INFO and DEBUG lines, and
F8jumps to the next error.Ctrl+Fsearches the whole file, with regular expressions if you like, and Find All lists the matches.Keep only what matters
The filter view shows only the lines that match, or only those that don't, like grep over the whole file, and saves them to a new file.
Follow it live
Follow mode (
bigtext -f app.log, or Follow (tail) file changes in the command palette) keeps adding new lines liketail -Fand survives log rotation. A log on a server opens over SSH with your keys:bigtext -f user@server:/var/log/syslog.
Good to know
- Several logs can be merged by time into one view, or two logs scrolled together by time.
- Search, the filter and saving run in the background with a progress bar and Cancel, so the window keeps answering.