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When looking at a vnext build in TFS 2015, I often see this:

The log is too big to be displayed in the browser. You can download the build logs and view them offline.

E.g.
TFS Build Log too big error

When downloaded, these are just text files, and whilst notepad can open them you don't get the nice colouring you do if they're on screen which highlights warnings and errors.

Is there an application that makes viewing these easier?

jessehouwing
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NikolaiDante
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  • Does it happen when you view the entire log only? Is it possible to see individual steps logs? – Yan Sklyarenko Sep 23 '15 at 17:58
  • @yan I believe tfs has a size limit that it will display (haven't quite worked out the kb size). Some individual are ok, others not – NikolaiDante Sep 23 '15 at 18:00
  • I got the same question but I cannot see where to download them, can you tell me where you downloaded them from? – MushyPeas Apr 06 '16 at 10:46
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    @CreeTar added an image – NikolaiDante Apr 06 '16 at 15:31
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    Ah ok, I use Notepad++ and created my own style to highlight them (http://imgur.com/ifu3htC). But for another log file I used the Notepad++ `Python Script` plugin, parsing an xml file and generating a tabbed CSV for excel from it that uses highlighting and folding, but you could also generate a html using `editor.getText().split("\n")` then work on it storing stuff in a variable and after you create a new notepad++ tab with your content using `notepad.new()` and simply `print myContentVar` – MushyPeas Apr 07 '16 at 11:03
  • I'm assuming that the bulk of the output is from the Powershell script. One work-around would be to break-up the steps into smaller steps and include multiple Powershell script steps (each with less output), and then click on the individual step to filter just on that step. – CJBS Oct 04 '16 at 17:48

1 Answers1

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There's no parser explicity for this purpose (TFS vNext Log file parsing).

There are, however, many Log Parser tools available that can do this. The following post is an (opinion-based) list of log parsers that might be useful:

TFS build logs are space-delimited, and hierarchically organized, so this may have an impact on which tools are up to the job. Rules can probably be put in place to format/colour based on tokens such as ##[debug] or ##[warning], though.

Many people seem to like Log Parser (command-line based) along with the GUI that goes on top of it, given that it supports querying.

Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/a/33433490/3063884

Community
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CJBS
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