Classic pagination or infinite scrolling for server log messages

Question

I want to display some server logs in my web application in a way Chrome DevTools shows its console. I want the latest entry to be on the top, older entries going down. While running the application, more logs may appear. Now I'm wondering, how I should present that to the user - a classic pagination (maybe 50-100 entries per page) or infinite scrolling. The app may run for days up to months so several thousand entries must be logged.

Pagination has the problem, that when you are looking for entries on page 2 and some new items are logged, the content you're looking at moves and may be added to page 3 after some time. But it has the advantage to go straight to the last page or wherever without the hassle to scroll literally infinite...

Whatever I chose should scale well with desktop and mobile browsers.

Thanks for any advise or other ways to implement this :)

Answer 1

Why not combine the best of both worlds? Give the users the ability to infinitely scroll, but also provide a way for them to search for specific entries, either by number/id or by the date and time it was entered. If there really are thousand of entries logged, you wouldn't want the user to have to scroll all the way so I think having a search or filter option would be a good addition.

Alternatively you could also give users the option to choose whatever they prefer.