printing contents of a http file to a shell?

Question

I want to be able to retrieve the contents of a log file stored on a server in the form of:

http://[SOME SORT OF ADDRESS]/file.txt

and print it to a shell which can refresh using something like 'watch' to keep a real time track of this log from a shell rather than having to use a broweser. Is there any neat and simple way of doing this (possibly later wrapped up into a python script).

I don't understand what you want. What do you mean by 'watch' and 'real time track'? — , Sep 28 '12 at 10:28
What do you mean by real time? Do you want to see streaming updates? — Hans Then, Sep 28 '12 at 10:30

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 28 '12 at 10:35

2

this will fetch the requested url every every 0.1 seconds and display on console

watch -n 0.1  wget -qO- http://google.com

answered Sep 28 '12 at 10:35

Marwan Alsabbagh

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0.1 might be too short a delay. Apart from that, looks sensible. – Shawn Chin Sep 28 '12 at 10:40

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 28 '12 at 10:32

0

Yes tail -f works on Linux. However this will only work on local files. If the file is remote you will have to repeatedly fetch it to keep the updated (I think).

answered Sep 28 '12 at 10:32

noel

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Hans Then · Answer 3 · 2012-09-28T11:25:16.443

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Maybe you could try something like this:

watch "wget -N http://[SOME SORT OF ADDRESS]/file.txt &> /dev/null; cat file.txt"

edited Sep 28 '12 at 11:25

answered Sep 28 '12 at 10:34

Hans Then

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If you repeatedly `wget` the same file, each output will be saved under a new name (`file.txt.?`) so in your example you'll only ever see the first version. Have `wget` output to stdout instead. – Shawn Chin Sep 28 '12 at 10:43

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 28 '12 at 10:35

0

while sleep 60; do
    curl address
done

Will print out once a min

Adjust to your liking

answered Sep 28 '12 at 10:35

minikomi

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printing contents of a http file to a shell?

4 Answers4