The service log is a special log written in a binary format. You cannot view the log directly using a text editor. You should never directly edit the service log, as doing so corrupts the log. To move the service log from one server to another, you must use a mechanism like FTP, which supports binary file transfer.
You can view the service log by using the showlog script to convert the contents of the service log to a text format that you can then write to a file or dump to the command shell window.
showlog.bat
showlog
Displaying user instructions
Run the showlog script with no parameters to display usage instructions.
showlog.bat
showlog
Displaying the service log contents to the shell window
On Windows and UNIX systems, use the invocation
showlog service_log_filename
If the service log is not in the default location, you must fully qualify the service_log_filename
Format and write the service log contents to a file
Use the invocation
showlog service_log_filename output_filename
If the service log is not in the default location, you must fully qualify the service_log_filename