Linux watch command – an alternative to at/cron/while?
So I just found out there is a command line binary called watch on Linux and well it’s surprisingly helpful, especially if you’re looking to run a command at regular intervals.
Normally, when I want to check a status of a directory or periodically check the netstat table, I write something like the following:
$ while true; do netstat -an | grep ; done
Now that I know about the watch command, I can simply do this instead:
$ watch netstat -an | grep
The above command runs every 2 seconds, refreshing your screen.
Type man watch to see more examples and what else you can use it for.