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| <document> |
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| <author email="psmith@apache.org">Paul Smith</author> |
| <title>Chainsaw v2 Documentation</title> |
| </properties> |
| |
| <body> |
| <section name="Chainsaw v2 - Introduction/Table of Contents"> |
| <p>Welcome to the home of Chainsaw v2!</p> |
| |
| <p>Chainsaw v2 is a companion application to Log4j written by members of the Log4j development |
| community. Like a number of Open Source |
| projects, this new version was built upon inspirations, ideas and creations of others. |
| Chainsaw v2 has it's roots from the original Chainsaw utility written by Oliver Burn, |
| and with inspiration from the Log Factor 5 utility contributed by ThoughtWorks Inc. </p> |
| <p><b>*** Got Java Web Start installed?: <a href="http://logging.apache.org/log4j/docs/webstart/chainsaw/chainsawWebStart.jnlp">[Launch now!]</a>***</b></p> |
| <p>If you haven't got Java Web Start installed, then try this zipped distribution. <a href="http://logging.apache.org/log4j/docs/webstart/chainsaw/chainsaw-bundle.zip">[Download]</a></p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#WhatIsIt">So what is it really?</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#QuickTour">Quick Tour of Chainsaw features</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#ProjectStatus">Project Status/Support/Feedback</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Installation">Installation</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#GettingStarted">Getting Started</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Tutorial">Tutorial and User Manual</a></li> |
| <!--<li><a href="#Screenshots">Screenshots</a></li>--> |
| </ul> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="So what is it really?"> |
| <p><a name="WhatIsIt"> </a>It's a GUI-based Log viewer. A picture tells a thousand words...</p> |
| |
| <p><a href="images/chainsaw-fullscreen.jpg" target="_new"><img src="images/chainsaw-fullscreen-small.jpg" /></a></p> |
| <p><a href="images/chainsaw-fullscreen.jpg" target="_new">[zoom image]</a></p> |
| |
| <p>These screen shots were taken on Windows 2000, running Sun JDK 1.4.2.</p> |
| |
| <p>Rather than rely on a combination of tail/grep/vi or equivalent to view/query/trace-through |
| a huge trail of logging events, you can use Chainsaw. Chainsaw can read log files formatted in Log4j's XMLLayout, receive |
| events from remote locations, read events from a DB, it can even work with the JDK 1.4 logging events.</p> |
| <!--<p>You can see some more screenshots <a href="#Screenshots">here</a>.</p>--> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Quick Tour of Chainsaw features"> |
| <p><a name="QuickTour"> </a> Heres just a <b>brief</b> run down of some of the features of Chainsaw v2:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><b>View remote events</b> - Remote events are "received" by Chainsaw using Log4j 1.3's new Receiver concept.</li> |
| <li><b>Saved Preferences</b> - You can fully customize each Tab the way you want it, and it will restore it's state the next time.</li> |
| |
| <li><b>Responsive</b> - When events are screaming in, you don't want the GUI to meltdown. You can control |
| how responsive the GUI is and determine the frequency of updates.</li> |
| <li><b>Tabs/Docking</b> - Chainsaw routes separate applications/remote hosts' events to a unique Tab within the GUI. |
| These tabs can be undocked from the main window. Using these features you can manage multiple application logs using the one GUI.</li> |
| <li><b>Coloring</b> - You can specify your own rules to color each event row depending on the attributes of a LoggingEvent to |
| help you locate important events.</li> |
| <li><b>Dynamic and powerful filtering</b> - Helps you locate stuff. There's support for quick-and-dirty filtering, right through to advanced expression-based filtering (e.g. <code> "LOGGER == 'com.mycompany' && LEVEL == ERROR" </code>).</li> |
| <li><b>Cyclic</b> - A tab view can support a Cyclic-based model, which constrains it's view to the last |
| X events, ensuring you don't hog memory. This is great for monitoring live applications.</li> |
| <li><b>Built-in documentation and tutorial</b> - HTML-based documentation included in the package.</li> |
| </ul> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Installation"> |
| <a name="Installation"> </a> |
| <p><b>*** Got Java Web Start installed?: <a href="http://logging.apache.org/log4j/docs/webstart/chainsaw/chainsawWebStart.jnlp">[Launch now!]</a>***</b></p> |
| <p>Otherwise, if the above link does not work, then you will need to check out the jakarta-log4j module from the Apache CVS server |
| to build and run Chainsaw v2. To make this easier, we have created an installation Ant script, you can download this |
| by <a href="install-chainsaw.xml">clicking here</a>.</p> |
| <P>You will need the following installed to utilise this installation script:</P> |
| <UL> |
| <li>JDK 1.3+ (1.4.2 is <b><i>strongly</i></b> recommeded)</li> |
| <li>Ant 1.5+</li> |
| <li>CVS (<a href="http://www.cygwin.com/">Cygwin</a> is handy for Windows users)</li> |
| </UL> |
| <P>Once you have downloaded and placed this script in a directory where you want Chainsaw v2 installed, you can type:</P> |
| <pre>ant -f install-chainsaw.xml</pre> |
| <P>This will download everything you need to build and run Chainsaw v2.</P> |
| <P>When finally released, we plan to have Chainsaw v2 available via Java WebStart.</P> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Getting Started"> |
| <p><a name="GettingStarted"> </a>If you launched via Java Web Start, you should be ROCKING! However, if you have used the above installer, you can <code>cd</code> to tho <code>jakarta-log4j</code> sub-directory and |
| type:</p> |
| <pre>ant chainsaw</pre> |
| <P>Chainsaw v2 will be built and run!</P> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Tutorial and User Manual"> |
| <p><a name="ExtraDocs"> </a>Chainsaw already includes help with |
| with a Quick Reference and a Tutorial to get you started, all viewable from <b>within the GUI</b>!. A User Manual will be made available around release time. </p> |
| </section> |
| |
| <!--<section name="Screenshots"> |
| <p><a name="Screenshots"/>Here's a few more screenshots to whet your appetite:</p> |
| </section>--> |
| |
| </body> |
| </document> |
