glTail: Sexy Log File Visualization using Ruby
glTail is a great little Ruby script by Erlend Simonsen (aka Fudgie) that uses OpenGL and Ruby to visualize the events taking place in log files in real time. An example video on the official site shows requests coming into an HTTP server, each represented by a "ball" which is thrown across the screen. The script uses net-ssh to connect to a server and then libopengl-ruby to output the graphics. Parsers are included for processing Apache, Rails, IIS and Postfix log files. Nice work! The code is merely a couple hundred lines of Ruby, so if you've fancied putting together a basic OpenGL app, it's worth looking at it for that reason too.
October 12, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Please grab version 0.05 instead, as it helps you get the correct versions of the required dependencies installed.
0.06 will be released soon as well, which has split the source into multiple files to make it easier to keep your local changes and tweaks around when upgrading.
October 12, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Highly recommended and really as simple to setup as described on the project page. Install 2 gems, edit some parameters (login, location of logfile) ans the show starts!
October 12, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Just tried it out. Very cool. It even automagically notices signups and logins!