How to open a code or text file online
Three steps, a few seconds, no software.
Open your .PCH file
Drop it on the box, choose it from your device, or paste the text straight in.
View it instantly
Your .PCH file opens neatly formatted with line numbers.
Search, copy or download
Search the text, jump to any line, then copy what you need or download a clean copy.
What is a .PCH file?
Plain text that programs, servers and people write every day.
A PCH file is a Precompiled Header, a binary cache a C++ compiler (Visual Studio, Clang, or Xcode) generates automatically to speed up builds by saving the parsed state of large header files. You never open or create one manually. If you see a PCH-related build error, do a Clean Build and rebuild the project.
Programs that open .PCH files
| Full name | Precompiled Header File |
|---|---|
| Developer | Microsoft (MSVC); also Clang/LLVM and GCC (each with proprietary binary format) |
| First released | 1988 (Microsoft C Compiler 6.0 for MS-DOS, first PCH implementation); mainstream adoption with MSVC for Windows in the 1990s |
| Category | Text & Code |
| MIME type | application/octet-stream |
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Frequently asked questions
Is my .PCH file uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read and highlighted for you.
Why do some characters look wrong (é, ł)?
That usually means the file was saved in one encoding and opened in another. We detect UTF-8, UTF-16 and the Windows-1250/1252 code pages automatically and show which one was used.
Can it handle huge log files?
Yes, up to 50 MB. Only the lines on screen are drawn, so scrolling stays smooth. Syntax colours are switched off for files over 1.5 MB to keep things fast.
How do the log level filters work?
We find levels like ERROR, WARN, INFO and DEBUG on each line. Lines without a level, such as stack traces, stay with the entry above them, so filtering to errors keeps the full trace.
Can I edit the file?
This is a viewer. To change code, download it or copy it into your editor. Converting encodings and line endings is planned.
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