httptail

httptail is a simple tool that lets tail a file, or multiple files at the same moment, over http. Just expose your logs on an apache (or whatever) VirtualDirectory and enjoy an "heroku logs"-like experience. The tool can also be used as a nodejs library; instead of logging to the console it will give you a callback(index, url, chunk) for every "tailed" file like in the following example, in which it pairs with the wonderful logstash-client:

    var Logstash = require('logstash-client');
    var HttpTailer = require('httptail/lib/HttpTailer').HttpTailer;

    var logstash = new Logstash({
      type: 'udp', // udp, tcp, memory 
      host: 'localhost',
      port: 9999 //13333
    });

    var lines = 100;
    var pause = 1000;
    var tail = true;
    var url = [
        "http://logs.machine.a:8003/apache/access_log",
        "http://logs.machine.b:8003/apache/access_log",
        "http://logs.machine.c:8003/apache/access_log",
        "http://logs.machine.d:8003/apache/access_log"
    ];

    var count = 0;

    for (i in url) {
        var tailer = new HttpTailer(url[i], i, lines, pause, tail);
        tailer.start(function(index, url, chunk){
            logstash.send("[" + url + "] " + chunk.toString(), function(){
                console.log("%d lines sent", (++count));
            });
        });
    }

Installation

    npm install httptail -g

Usage

    httptail url [otherUrls...] [options]

    Options:

   -h, --help             output usage information
   -V, --version          output the version number
   -n, --number [lines]   Number of lines (estimated, 100 chars each)
   -t, --tail             Follow the tail of the file
   -p, --pause [msecs]    Pause in msecs between pollings
   -v, --verbose [level]  low: print #number before the line; high: print url

Development

To build and install from source locally:

• git clone https://github.com/raffaeleguidi/httptail
• cd httptail
• npm -g install .