suse man page for watch

WATCH(1)							Linux User's Manual							  WATCH(1)

NAME
       watch - execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen

SYNOPSIS
       watch [-dhvt] [-n <seconds>] [--differences[=cumulative]] [--help] [--interval=<seconds>] [--no-title] [--version] <command>

DESCRIPTION
       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
       "sticky",  presenting  a running display of all positions that have ever changed.  The -t or --no-title option turns off the header showing
       the interval, command, and current time at the top of the display, as well as the following blank line.

       watch will run until interrupted.

NOTE
       Note that command is given to "sh -c" which means that you may need to use extra quoting to get the desired effect.

       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.

EXAMPLES
       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.)

BUGS
       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 "cat -v" as part of the command pipeline if you want to see them.

AUTHORS
       The original watch was written by Tony Rems <rembo@unisoft.com> in 1991, with mods and corrections by Francois Pinard.  It was reworked and
       new features added by Mike Coleman <mkc@acm.org> in 1999.

								    1999 Apr 3								  WATCH(1)