WATCH
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION NOTE EXAMPLES BUGS AUTHORS
watch - execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen
watch [-dhv? [[-n
watch runs command repeatedly, displaying its output (the first screenfull). This allows you to watch the program output change over time. By default, the program is run every 2 seconds; use -n or --interval to specify a different interval.
The -d or --differences flag will highlight the differences between successive updates. The --cumulative option makes highlighting ''
watch will run until interrupted.
Note that command is given to ''
Note that POSIX option processing is used (i.e., option processing stops at the first non-option argument). This means that flags after command don't get interpreted by watch itself.
To watch for mail, you might do
watch -n 60 from
To watch the contents of a directory change, you could use
watch -d ls -l
If you're only interested in files owned by user joe, you might use
watch -d 'ls -l | fgrep joe'
To see the effects of quoting, try these out
watch echo $$
watch echo '$$'
watch echo
You can watch for your administrator to install the latest kernel with
watch uname -r
(Just kidding.)
Upon terminal resize, the screen will not be correctly repainted until the next scheduled update. All --differences highlighting is lost on that update as well.
Non-printing characters are stripped from program output. Use
The original watch was written by Tony Rems __
