Is there a tool that can top-ify an input stream?
Solution 1:
You don't need to write a tool, the standard unix toolset can accommodate you just fine.
#!/bin/bash
echo -e 'Unit\tStatus\tMessage\t\t\tRetval'
cat /var/log/filename | awk '{match($0,"\".*\"",a)}{print $6 "\t" $3 "\t" a[0] "\t\t" $NF}' |sort -k<fieldnum>
Put that in a .sh file and run watch on it.