I wrote that powershell module because I couldn't find any module or cmdlet that could tail the content of a web file. This module exports the cmdlet Get-WebContent which works with servers that accept byte ranges:
- Header
accept-ranges=bytes
It comes with a -Wait switch so that its able to get new content if the file you are getting changes onto the server. This is extremely helpful if you'd like to watch a log-file. It's like the powershell cmdlet Get-Content for the web and like a mixture of wget and tail from unix. The Content of the file will be streamed to the pipeline so it can easily be further processed.
During the creation of the module, the focus was on simple usability. So no external dependencies to other modules or thirdparty software are required.
Simply download the whole PSGetWebContent folder to C:\Users\<username>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
Get-WebContent http://myserver/access.log |
gets the whole content of the file |
Get-WebContent http://myserver/access.log -TailKiloBytes 2 |
gets the last two kilobytes of the file |
Get-WebContent http://myserver/access.log -Wait |
gets the whole content of the file and waits for more |
Get-WebContent http://myserver/access.log -Wait -TailKiloBytes 2 |
gets the last two kilobytes of the file and waits for more |
Q: Why does this cmdlet not support all different kinds of getting a webfile and supports e.g. only servers with byte-ranges.
A: Because this cmdlet is designed to do explicit only the "wait" and "tail" stuff. For all other purposes exists already very good and efficient cmdlets and modules.
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Q: Can the cmdlet provided by the module be used in combination with other cmdlets?
A: Yes it can! It will steam the output to the pipeline, so that other cmdlets can easily work on that stream. For example PSColorizedLogOutput can be used in combination with PSGetWebContent.