Version15 Menu not responsive

[b8factor]

Greetings,

My company uses UE to view log files. Lately I have had a strange issue. I cannot find steps to recreate it but it happens quite frequently to me.

While working with log file (on network drive) I move my mouse up to the menu bar and there is no response. I cannot click on any menus. If I wait for a while they start working or I can simple do Alt-Ctrl to another application and then back to UE and they work instantly.

Any help to resolve this would be great!

B8factor

[Mofi]

How large are the log files you open in UltraEdit for viewing? Some KB, several MB or even GB?

Do you use temporary files or are the logs opened without usage of a temporary files?

There is the power tip Large file text editor explaining how to improve performance on working with large files. In the forum you can find more tips how to improve performance especially when working mainly on network drives. Those tips are useful mainly on working on servers/networks which from time to time fail to response quickly.

One tip already now: Next time UltraEdit does not response, press quickly Ctrl+Alt+Del, open the task manager and look on process list. If process uedit32.exe consumes most of the CPU power like 50% on a dual core (= 1 core with 100% usage), UltraEdit is busy for some reason. But if uedit32.exe consumes just a few percentage of CPU power, UltraEdit is waiting on a response from file system respectively network service respectively server or another process like anti-virus guard is currently very busy and therefore UltraEdit process is halted by Windows.

[b8factor]

Thanks for the reply Mofi.

I had set up all the large file text editor tips quite a while ago and re-checked them again. My LOG files can be massive, GB sometimes. Typically what we do is load one, which takes a while, and then with UE up all day long just refresh file (across network) to get new data.

I did notice a check box, checked, I thought might be the culprit so I have unchecked and with test throughout the day. It was, "Check files for changes only on application focus change.”



***** On another note if you have any opinions?
The large LOG files are unavoidable but it does eat away quite a bit of our time just waiting for UE to load. Not UE fault, the files ARE massive, but I would like to try to minimize our wasted time if possible.

The routine most of us do I explained above, we bite the bullet to load the file across the network and refresh when we need to. These files are constantly being written to.

Any recommendations on a better way would be appreciated? the issues we deal with are that the files are being written to constantly, we only ever need the last 1000 lines or so, the files reside on another departments server that we do not have rights to install something like parser application, and it takes way too long to copy the file over to the local pc and then open versus our method of just refreshing it time and time again.

If UE has something we are not thinking about that can decrease our load times that would be great, but we do understand that the solution might need to be handled outside of UE. i.e. maybe trying to wrote powershell cmdlet that grabs the last 1000 lines, from the server across the network of a file still being written to, and pulls into our local PC to pip to txt file that we can then use UE to load. This is the only, untested solution, I could think of that we may implement without having to install something on the server.

-B

[Mofi]

I must admit that I have nearly no experience with viewing large log files with UltraEdit. So I can't be really helpful in this use case.

Have you disabled usage of temporary files either completely for all files or just for files larger than X KB like your large log files on the server?

That would reduce the time for opening the large file. On the other hand opening a large file without usage of a temporary file results in opening the file by UltraEdit with a write lock. In this case another application could not append something to the log. So most likely you use a temporary file and opening the large file results in copying it to the local TEMP directory via the network.

Line numbers (line counting on load) is most likely disabled as it saves time on loading the file and on setting caret after opening to end of file with Ctrl+End. Automatic line termination conversion is surely disabled or the log file uses already DOS line terminators.

Having the file change detection setting Check files for changes on application focus change checked is usually good as it avoids file system access on regular intervals. However, if the file change detection setting itself is disabled, this setting is of no use and therefore it does not matter if this setting is enabled or disabled.

I suppose that the long loading time on opening and moving caret to end of file using Ctrl+End cannot be avoided, especially if usage of a temporary file is active for the large file to keep the file writable for other applications.

What might be useful in your case is to disable file change detection feature completely and instead use only the polling feature.

At Advanced - Configuration - File Handling - File Change Detection

• choose Disable for File Change Detection,
• enter a value for the polling interval like 300 for every 5 minutes,
• check the last option about automatic scrolling to last line of polled file.

After opening the large log file and setting caret to end of file enable in menu View the option File Change Polling for this file. The option below Auto Scroll Polled Files should be already checked as this command toggles the last configuration setting on the file change detection configuration dialog.

With these settings UltraEdit checks in the specified interval for file changes (file times, file size, file attributes) on this loaded file only and automatically load the last lines and display them. Please note that a file change is now detected only in this interval. So even if you use another application and set focus back to UltraEdit, UltraEdit does not check the file immediately for changes.

So perhaps you may want to configure in File Change Detection configuration dialog:

• Prompt for update when files change for File Change Detection and have Check files for changes on application focus change enabled,
• a value for the polling interval like 300 for every 5 minutes,
• and have the last option about automatic scrolling to last line of polled file enabled.

With these settings UltraEdit checks in the specified interval for file changes (file times, file size, file attributes) on this loaded file only and automatically load the last lines and display them. Additionally a file change detection is done on all files when UltraEdit main window gets back the focus.

Please note that opening a dialog in UltraEdit and closing it results also in an OnFocus event for the UltraEdit main window and therefore triggers also the file change detection for all loaded files in this use case.


I must add an extra note about viewing files in general. I use UltraEdit mainly for editing text files and not for viewing them. The exception is when I want to view a text file with syntax highlighting. In general I view files (text and binary) without syntax highlighting with the built-in viewer (key F3) of my favorite file manager Total Commander (shareware like UltraEdit). The viewer of Total Commander, also available as free stand-alone tool, is very simple. But its simplicity makes this viewer extremly fast. Viewing end of a 2 GB binary file in hex mode: F3, 3, Ctrl+End and after some milliseconds I see end of the huge binary file. Same for text file of any size. And as it is not possible to edit files with this viewer, there is no write lock. So viewing a large log file is simple: F3, Ctrl+End and while viewing now the end of the file other applications can append lines without any problem. F2 to refresh and again Ctrl+End (or only Ctrl+End) and I see the new lines just after a few milliseconds even via network drive.