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What is the best way to display the contents of a text (.txt) as it updates? The log is updated by a C++ program that outputs log/error messages to it, and the file persists between (and is present before) runs.

Currently, I just keep it open in Nopepad++, which asks to update whenever it detects changes were made. But it requires window focus to do that, which makes debugging some situations difficult and tedius.

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    Under linux we have the tail -f purposed for such. I don't know if there's a windows system tool equivalent. At least MinGW MSys supports this command.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 18:34
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    Also see Looking for a windows equivalent of the unix tail command
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 18:37
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    I ended up following πάντα ῥεῖ's link, and downloaded the unix tail command. It's better than expected! I can stuff tail.exe -f -n20 filename.txt into the build script and it automatically comes up when I begin debugging
    – Anne Quinn
    Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 19:35

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The Document Monitor Plugin does not require focus.

It can be installed via the plugin manager (just search for "Document Monitor").

After installed choose Plugins->Document Monitor->Start to Monitor, to update all documents every 3 seconds.

Source:http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/auto-refresh-all-opened-notepad-documents-to-view-changes-document-monitor/

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