The Large File Viewer will allow you to view very large text files using a minimum amount of memory. The program is designed specifically to run on Windows and view standard text files with consistent line endings. It was originally used to view very large log files, database dumps, etc. We use it to view text files up to 50-60GB. View in char or hex mode.
Key points regarding the program:
- The file being viewed is not stored in memory.
- The program will start displaying the file immediately.
- In text mode, the entire file must be read before you can view all of it but you can navigate to any record or line that has been processed(read). In hex mode the file will display immediately amd you can navigate to any part of the file right away.
- Performance is dependent primarily on disk throughput. On a modest machine it takes 30-40 seconds to process a 10GB file on a standard HDD. SSDs are faster.
- The program does maintain a list of addresses for each line so a small amount of memory is used per line.
- Searching requires that the entire file be read to find the data you're looking for.
- Search is not currently available in hex mode.
- The program does not currently have update capabilities (probably never will).
Consider this a Beta release. I would appreciate feedback.