Skip to Content
CLI for Noobies: A Primer on the Linux Command Line
book

CLI for Noobies: A Primer on the Linux Command Line

by Joe Barr
July 2007
Beginner
347 pages
4h 40m
English
Pearson
Content preview from CLI for Noobies: A Primer on the Linux Command Line

Chapter 11. Watch That File

You know what they say, a watched pot never boils. That’s why it makes good sense to use this little tool to watch it for you. Waiting for mail? Want to see if a job has completed? Watch can help.

Watch allows you to see a real-time display of the latest output—the first screenful of output—from a command. So instead of you having to retype the command 50 times while you wait for whatever to occur, you tell watch to do it for you. By default, watch reissues your command every 2 seconds.

The basic format for the watch command is:

linux~>watch process-name

Once started, watch keeps running until it is stopped.

Note

You don’t want to use watch with programs that keep running. If you do, you’ll be sorry. Here’s why.

For example, ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

CentOS 8 Essentials

CentOS 8 Essentials

Neil Smyth

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780132361705