Commands using watch (155)

  • Monitor incoming connections of proxies and balancers.

    Maybe this will help you to monitor your load balancers or reverse proxies if you happen to use them. This is useful to discover TIME OUTS and this will let you know if one or more of your application servers is not connected by checking. Show Sample Output


    2
    watch -n 1 "/usr/sbin/lsof -p PID |awk '/TCP/{split(\$8,A,\":\"); split(A[2],B,\">\") ; split(B[1],C,\"-\"); print A[1],C[1],B[2], \$9}' | sort | uniq -c"
    ideivid · 2011-08-12 19:16:38 4
  • Server load and process monitoring

    In certain cases you mighy need to monitor the server load caused by certain process. For example HTTP, while stress testing apache using ab (apache benchmark) you may want to monitor the server status,load, # of spawned HTTP processes, # of established connections, # of connections in close wait state, apache memory footprint etc. Show Sample Output


    2
    watch -n1 "uptime && ps auxw|grep http|grep -v grep | grep -v watch|wc -l && netstat -ntup|grep :80 |grep ESTABLISHED|wc -l && netstat -ntup|grep :80|grep WAIT|wc -l && free -mo && ps -ylC httpd --sort:rss|tail -3|awk '{print \$8}'"
    rockon · 2012-06-06 12:12:10 9
  • Watch active calls on an Asterisk PBX

    This handles when you have a single call or channel. Other commands will strip out the result if there is a single channel or call active because the output changes the noun to be singular instead of plural. Show Sample Output


    2
    watch "asterisk -vvvvvrx 'core show channels' | egrep \"(call|channel)\""
    rowshi · 2012-08-29 13:40:45 6
  • send DD a signal to print its progress

    Sends the "USR1" signal every 1 second (-n 1) to a process called exactly "dd". The signal in some systems can be INFO or SIGINFO ... look at the signals list in: man kill


    2
    watch -n 1 pkill -USR1 "^dd$"
    ivanalejandro0 · 2012-08-31 05:15:45 5
  • Monitor memory fine-grained usage (e.g. firefox)

    Sometimes top/htop don't give the fine-grained detail on memory usage you might need. Sum up the exact memory types you want


    2
    watch "awk '/Rss/{sum += \$2; } END{print sum, \"kB\"}' < /proc/$(pidof firefox)/smaps"
    gumnos · 2015-09-19 00:36:34 18
  • Monitor cpu in realtime.


    2
    watch grep \"cpu MHz\" /proc/cpuinfo
    wuseman1 · 2018-11-11 00:45:28 510
  • Watch how many tcp connections there are per state every two seconds.


    2
    $ watch -c "netstat -natp 2>/dev/null | tail -n +3 | awk '{print \$6}' | sort | uniq -c"
    emanuele · 2018-11-22 10:37:48 334
  • Watch TCP, UDP open ports in real time with socket summary.


    2
    watch ss -stplu
    wuseman1 · 2019-07-16 20:41:36 45
  • Test http request every second, fancy display.

    Use the command watch, which is really hard to pass nested quotes to, and insert newlines where they are supposed to go in the HTTP request. that is after 1.1 after the host and two newlines at the end before the EOF. i use this all day what? no support for HEREDOCs on commandlinefu's interface? need more fu. Show Sample Output


    1
    watch -n 1 nc localhost 80 '<<EOF GET / HTTP/1.1 Host: tux-ninja Connection: Close EOF'
    JustinHop · 2009-08-06 23:20:31 4
  • Not a kismet replacement...

    If you're like some individuals who rely on ndiswrapper and cannot use kismet, this command may be of service. watch -n .5 "iwlist wlan0 scan | egrep 'ESSID|Encryption'" Or... watch -n .5 "iwlist wlan0 scan | egrep 'ESSID|Encryption' | egrep 'linksys'" :-) Hopefully you'll find some dd-wrt compatible routers.


    1
    watch -n .5 "iwlist wlan0 scan"
    Abiden · 2009-08-20 23:05:04 3
  • Watching Command

    If you need to keep an eye on a command whose output is changing, use the watch command. For example, to keep an eye on your load average


    1
    watch 'cat /proc/loadavg'
    0disse0 · 2009-09-03 20:10:46 6
  • Battery real life energy vs predicted remaining plotted

    This time I added a print to reemaining energy, every minute, time stamped. The example shown here is complete and point to large discrepancies as time passes, converging to accuracy near the end. Show Sample Output


    1
    echo start > battery.txt; watch -n 60 'date >> battery.txt ; acpi -b >> battery.txt'
    m33600 · 2009-10-19 05:28:15 4
  • Monitor a file's size


    1
    watch -n 60 du /var/log/messages
    rbossy · 2009-10-27 14:53:41 3
  • watch the previous command

    If you just executed some long command, like "ps -aefww | grep -i [m]yProcess", and if you don't want to retype it or cycle backwards in history and waste time quoting it, then you can use history substitution.


    1
    watch -n1 -d !!
    TeacherTiger · 2009-11-24 21:01:14 4
  • Monitoring sessions that arrive at your server


    1
    watch -n 1 -d "finger"
    tsiqueira · 2009-12-08 14:53:18 4
  • watch snapshots commit in VMware ESX

    To monitor .vmdk files during snapshot deletion (commit) on ESX only (ESXi doesn't have the watch command): 1. Navigate to the VM directory containing .vmdk files. # watch "ls -tough --full-time *.vmdk" where: -t sorts by modification time -o do not list group information (to narrow the output) -u sorts by access time -g only here for the purpose to easily remember the created mnemonic word 'tough' -h prints sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G) --full-time sets the time style to full-iso and does not list user information (to narrow the output) optionally useful parameters to the watch command: -d highlight changes between updates -n seconds to wait between updates (default is 2) -t turn off printing the header


    1
    watch 'ls -tough --full-time *.vmdk'
    vRobM · 2010-08-20 17:28:28 7
  • Remind yourself every 15 minutes (repeated reminders)

    Note: 1) -n option of watch accepts seconds 2) -t option of notify-send accepts milliseconds 3) All quotes stated in the given example are required if notification message is more than a word. 4) I couldn't get this to run in background (use of & at the end fails). Any suggestions/improvements welcome.


    1
    watch -n 900 "notify-send -t 10000 'Look away. Rest your eyes'"
    b_t · 2010-10-05 09:39:31 7
  • Watch and cat the last file to enter a directory

    Great for watching things like Maildir's or any other queue directory.


    1
    watch "cat `ls -rcA1 | tail -n1`"
    donnoman · 2011-03-25 01:22:05 9
  • monitor the last command run


    1
    watch !!
    wincus · 2011-07-05 12:50:56 8
  • Watch the disk fill up with change highlighting

    If you add the -d flag each difference in the command's output will be highlighted. I also monitor individual drives by adding them to df. Makes for a nice thin status line that I can shove to the bottom of the monitor.


    1
    watch -d -n 5 df
    pcphillips · 2011-08-24 19:45:36 7
  • Monitor connection statistics with netstat and watch


    1
    watch -n 1 "netstat -ntu | sed '1,2d' | awk '{ print \$6 }' | sort | uniq -c | sort -k 2"
    facecool · 2011-09-30 09:04:14 4
  • UPS Tracking Script


    1
    watch -t -c -n30 'wget -q -O- "http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/processInputRequest?TypeOfInquiryNumber=T&InquiryNumber1=1Z4WYXXXXXXXXXX" | html2text | sed -n "/Shipment Progress/,/Shipping Information/p" | grep -v "*" | ccze -A'
    mfr · 2013-06-20 06:01:25 16
  • A bash timer

    Starts and shows a timer. banner command is a part of the sysvbanner package. Instead of the banner an echo or figlet commands could be used. Stop the timer with Ctrl-C and elapsed time will be shown as the result. Show Sample Output


    1
    alias timer='export ts=$(date +%s);p='\''$(date -u -d @"$(($(date +%s)-$ts))" +"%H.%M.%S")'\'';watch -n 1 -t banner $p;eval "echo $p"'
    ichbins · 2013-08-24 16:18:45 14
  • Like top but for files

    Like top, but for files


    1
    watch -d -n 2 'df; ls -FlAt;'
    G2G · 2013-09-17 05:44:47 7
  • Watch a dig in progress

    Watch a dig in progress Show Sample Output


    1
    watch -n1 dig google.com
    ene2002 · 2013-12-26 19:23:27 14
  •  < 1 2 3 4 5 >  Last ›

What's this?

commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.

Share Your Commands

Check These Out

display information about the CPU

This allows you to find a string on a set of files recursivly
The -r is for recursive, -F for fixed strings, --include='*.txt' identifies you want all txt files to be search any wildcard will apply, then the string you are looking for and the final * to ensure you go through all files and folders within the folder you execute it.

list files recursively by size

Print the contents of $VARIABLE, six words at a time
Print out the contents of $VARIABLE, six words per line, ignoring any single or double quotes in the text. Useful when $VARIABLE contains a sentence that changes periodically, and may or may not contain quoted text.

Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS
Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

Which processes are listening on a specific port (e.g. port 80)
swap out "80" for your port of interest. Can use port number or named ports e.g. "http"

list files recursively by size

Nice weather forecast on your shell
Change Seville for your prefered city.

Which processes are listening on a specific port (e.g. port 80)
swap out "80" for your port of interest. Can use port number or named ports e.g. "http"

execute your commands and avoid history records
$ secret_command;export HISTCONTROL= This will make "secret_command" not appear in "history" list.

Stay in the loop…

Follow the Tweets.

Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.

» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10

Subscribe to the feeds.

Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):

Subscribe to the feed for: