BareTail easy (scripted) usage

We use BareTail a lot, since it’s so fast and easy to work with, even on very large log files.

To make is easier for ourselves, we created some (batch) scripts to quickly open our log files using BareTail.

Our template for such a batch script is shown below, maybe it can be useful for others:

@echo off
@rem example to connect to network share
@net use "\\<ip-adres>" /d
@net use "\\<ip-adres>" /USER:<username> "<password>"
rem add the full path to the baretail executable as a system variable
rem go to Start -> Run -> control Sysdm.cpl,,3 -> Environment variables -> new -> name: baretail, value: C:\Program Files\BareTail\baretail.exe
rem or use 'setx baretail C:\Program Files\BareTail\baretail.exe'
rem if the env variable is not set, the default value will be used. 
@if "%baretail%" =="" set baretail=C:\Program Files\BareTail\baretail.exe
rem add all log files to be opened in list below, delimited with a space
@set files=\\<ip-adres>\<path-to-log-file> \\<ip-adres>\<path-to-log-file> 
@start "baretail" "%baretail%" %files%
@echo on

To easily tail all log files in the current directory:

setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
if "%baretail%" =="" set baretail=C:\Program Files\BareTail\baretail.exe
SET FILES=
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('dir /a-d/s/b "*.log"') do SET FILES=!FILES! "%%i"
start "tail" "%baretail%" %files%

Easily clear up all log files in the current directory by moving them into a WinRAR archive:

@echo off
SET WIN_RAR_APP=c:\program files\winrar\rar.exe
SET BACKUP_LOGS_DIR=backup_logs
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET FILES=
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('dir /a-d/s/b "*.log"') do SET FILES=!FILES! "%%i"
mkdir "%BACKUP_LOGS_DIR%"
SET Today=%Date: =.%
SET Today=%Today:~-4%.%Date:~-7,2%.%Date:~-10,2%
SET Now=%Time: =0%
SET Now=%Now::=.%
set archivename="logs_%Today%-%Now%.rar"
set archivename="%archivename: =%"
"%WIN_RAR_APP%" m "%BACKUP_LOGS_DIR%\%archivename%" %files%

Update 26/04/2009: added scripts for logs in current directory.