Best viewer for large text files (> 10GB) [duplicate]

Question

I'm looking for a text file viewer (ideally an editor too) that will do the following (ordered from most to least important):

1. Load the file quickly (10 seconds for a 10 GB file off an SSD)
2. Once the file is open, jump to specific line numbers fairly quickly (~1 second per lookup)
3. Have decent text search/replace mechanisms, ideally with regex support.
4. Ideally, avoid dumping the entire file into RAM because I quickly run out (I've got 32GB but still).

I've tried TextPad and UltraEdit so far. I've been using the former for years with much success, but the line number calculation seems to break when opening files larger than 10 GB. UltraEdit looks fine, but is very expensive (close to $100 per year). I'm wondering if there is a better/cheaper alternative.

Answer 1

I wrote a program which outputs very large files, about 6 GB and above. I view them with glogg.

glogg is fast, supports grep/egrep-like regular expressions and loads file directly from disk without putting it into RAM.

Website: http://glogg.bonnefon.org/

Answer 2

I would recommend SlickEdit. It meets your requirements of,

• Loads files very quickly
• Available on multiple platforms including Windows
• Supports Editing
  • Automatically reformat code when typing, pasting, or performing syntax/alias expansion.
  • Syntax expansion automatically expands common block structures (e.g. if, for, try) after typing keyword.
  • Auto-Complete reduces keystrokes by completing symbols as you type.
  • SmartPaste® automatically reindents pasted lines of text.
  • Choose from 15 keystroke emulations including Brief, CodeWright, Vim, and Emacs.
  • Multiple cursors and selections.
  • Create custom typing shortcuts with Aliases.
  • Dynamic Surround - Surround existing lines of code with block statements or tags.
  • Create reusable modules/units of code with Code Templates.
  • Backup History maintains a version history for a file each time you save.
  • Edit files up to 2 TB in size.

SlickEdit

Designed by developers for developers, SlickEdit’s award-winning source code and text editor is respected for its rich set of coding tools and powerful time-saving programming features. A true cross-platform, multi-language editor, SlickEdit gives programmers the ability to code in over 40 languages on 9 platforms.

Answer 3

I would also like to add Log Expert. It can view very large files (but cannot edit them). It's very lightweight (only a few megabytes) and is available for Windows being completely open source.

Log Expert

• You are a developer needing a nice tail application for MS Windows?
• You are in the need for a powerful logfile analysis tool?
• You love logfiles?
• You live in your logfiles?
• Or at least: you have to work with them?
• Download LogExpert if you answered "yes" to any of the questions above!