tall.tail

A web application allowing you to view a 'tail-f' of files on your server.

Written in Node.js

How to Use

Build it.
Install it.
Configure it.
Run it.
Point your browser to http://<your-server>:9000/tail

Prereqs

Install node.js

Install ant : 'yum install ant'

Build It

Clone this project

> git clone <this project>
> cd tall.tail
> ant

This will build the file dist/tall.tail-1.0-dev.tar.gz

Install it

Figure out where you want to put it. Default is /opt/node

> mkdir /opt/node
> cd /opt/node
> tar xzvf <the file you build above>
> cd tall.tail
> npm install

Configure it

Edit the file config.js. Change the port to the one you want. Change the buffer size to something you feel is appropriate. Add files to the list of exported files. NOTE: tall.tail will just crash if the files you're monitoring dont exist or you dont have permission to view them. Don't be that guy.

  /**
  * config.js
  * Tall Tail server-side configuration. TallTail.config in app/ttconfig.js
  * wraps this file and reloads it on change so that you can add files without
  * having to restart the service.
  */
  exports.port = 9000;

  exports.buffersize = 5000;

  exports.files = [
  '/usr/local/tomcat/logs/catalina.out',
  '/usr/local/activemq/data/activemq.log'
  ];

Run it

To start it as a normal process

> node ./app.js

To start it as a background process

> node ./app.js &> tall.tail.log &

Perhaps you want to run tall tail as a system service???

To start it as a Linux service (for centos 6-)

Edit the file service.sh and make sure the paths are correct

Make sure that the script has execute permission

  > chmod +x /opt/node/tall.tail/service.sh

Link it into the /etc/init.d directory

  > ln -s /opt/node/tall.tail/service.sh /etc/init.d/tall-tale

Create and start the service

> chkconfig tall-tale --add
> service tall-tail start

To start it as a Systemd service (for centos7+)

Edit the file /opt/node/tall.tail/tall-tail and make sure the paths are correct, then copy or link the file to /etc/systemd/system.

Then enable tall-tail

systemctl enable tall-tail

Finally, start tall-tail

systemctl start tall-tail

Optional: Systemd routes all of tall.tail's output to the syslog....and it can be a bit verbose. You may want to send it to its own log file. To do that:

Create the file /etc/rsyslog.d/tall-tail.conf and fill it with this:

if $programname == 'tall-tail' then /var/log/tall-tail.log
& stop

Then restart the system logger

systemctl restart rsyslog

bowmanmc/tall.tail