How to reverse command line compilation error output?

Question

Whenever a compilation results in an error output longer then one screen, I have to scroll back to see the first error (possibly a cause of the later ones) and fix it. This is especially a pain in Screen, where I first have to press ctrl+a Esc to scroll.

Is there a command line switch in javac that lets the error messages be displayed in reverse order, or is there some generic command line magic I can achieve the same effect with?

Update: Just to clarify, I always use the command line for compilation, an IDE is not an option.

On a Linux, there is naturally a trivial way: javac ... | tail -r But personally, I'd use javac ... | less, which automatically gives me the first screen of output. — Marko Topolnik
– Marko Topolnik, Commented Aug 3, 2013 at 18:40
@MarkoTopolnik Tail complains there is no -r switch. Oddly, less scrolls the output to the end, as if it weren’t piped through it at all. — Joó Ádám
– Joó Ádám, Commented Aug 3, 2013 at 18:51
@JoóÁdám Then you probably don't realise what you are missing... — assylias
– assylias, Commented Aug 3, 2013 at 19:06

bsd · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-03 19:19:23Z

3

If you want to stop on the first compilation error, then you should probably use -Xmaxerrs 1. You can fix that error and compile again.

Edit If you are under *nix environment, redirecting stderr to stdout will make most of the tools like head, more, less work. Compilation errors are printed to stderr.

javac File.java 2>&1 | less

Edit2 You could also send it to a file using -Xstdout filename

edited Aug 3, 2013 at 19:19

answered Aug 3, 2013 at 19:08

bsd

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1 Comment

Joó Ádám Over a year ago

Technically not an answer to the question, but I will accept it, because -Xmaxerrs 1 works really nice for me. Thanks!

Ravi K Thapliyal · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-03 18:41:10Z

1

Pipe the output to more on command-line or better use an IDE like Eclipse.

javac file.java | more

Now press space bar to let the output scroll (or enter for line by line) if it's more than one screen page.

answered Aug 3, 2013 at 18:41

Ravi K Thapliyal

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3 Comments

Joó Ádám Over a year ago

more, just like less, displays the entire output, scrolling to the last line (which I don’t understand either).

Richard Sitze Over a year ago

That's indicative of a program writing info to stderr, not stdout.

Joó Ádám Over a year ago

@RichardSitze Yeah, it crossed my mind, but I thought at the end of the day by default the pipe takes both stdout and stderr.

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