How to watch files

• Keep track of diff progress

  You're running a program that reads LOTS of files and takes a long time. But it doesn't tell you about its progress. First, run a command in the background, e.g. find /usr/share/doc -type f -exec cat {} + > output_file.txt Then run the watch command. "watch -d" highlights the changes as they happen In bash: $! is the process id (pid) of the last command run in the background. You can change this to $(pidof my_command) to watch something in particular. Show Sample Output

  This is sample output - yours may be different.

  Every 2.0s: ls -l /proc/4958/fd                                                                                                                   Fri Jan 31 23:44:07 2014
  
  total 0
  lrwx------. 1 flatcap flatcap 64 Jan 31 23:43 0 -> /dev/pts/3
  l-wx------. 1 flatcap flatcap 64 Jan 31 23:43 1 -> /home/flatcap/output_file.txt
  lrwx------. 1 flatcap flatcap 64 Jan 31 23:43 2 -> /dev/pts/3
  lr-x------. 1 flatcap flatcap 64 Jan 31 23:43 3 -> /usr/share/doc/
  
  

  
  

  1
  watch -d "ls -l /proc/$!/fd"
  flatcap · 2014-01-31 23:51:17 0
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• Watch your websites php

  Shows files and processes of the command php

  This is sample output - yours may be different.

  
  

  0
  watch -d=c -n3 'lsof -itcp -iudp -c php'
  AskApache · 2013-03-14 01:24:50 0
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• Watch how fast the files in a drive are being deleted

  This can be useful when a large remove operation is taking place.

  This is sample output - yours may be different.

  
  

  4
  watch "df | grep /path/to/drive"
  root · 2009-01-25 21:16:41 0
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• Poor man's watch: Repeat a command every N seconds

  Usage: watch ls -l Basic but usable replacement for the "watch" command for those systems which don't have it (e.g. the Solaris I'm trapped on). Type Ctrl+V to escape the following Ctrl+L which clears the screen. It will be displayed as "^L".

  This is sample output - yours may be different.

  
  

  0
  watch() { while true; do echo "<Ctrl+V><Ctrl+L>Every 2.0s: $@"; date; eval "$@"; sleep 2; done }
  hfs · 2012-03-07 09:30:15 0
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