Logparser

logparser is a flexible command line utility that was initially written by Gabriele Giuseppini, a Microsoft employee, to automate tests for IIS logging. It was intended for use with the Windows operating system, and was included with the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools. The default behavior of logparser works like a "data processing pipeline", by taking an SQL expression on the command line, and outputting the lines containing matches for the SQL expression.

Microsoft describes Logparser as a powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data such as log files, XML files and CSV files, as well as key data sources on the Windows operating system such as the Event Log, the Registry, the file system, and Active Directory. The results of the input query can be custom-formatted in text based output, or they can be persisted to more specialty targets like SQL, SYSLOG, or a chart.

Common use:

Example: Selecting date, time and client username accessing ASPX-files, taken from all .log-files in the current directory. > logparser -i:IISW3C -q ""

Archived links
The following links are only available through the Internet Archive:
 * Log Parser Studio - a GUI Utility for Log Parser
 * Visual Log Parser - a GUI for Log Parser
 * Log Parser Forums - while the original, dedicated Log Parser forums are gone, you can still view the contents in the archives or try a keyword search of Microsoft's QnA forums
 * Microsoft Log Parser overview page - informational article on Microsoft's scripting tools website