Enhanced Linux watch command with lots of cool and useful features.
Feature Comparison | Sample Screenshots | Uses | Installation | Startup Usage | Interactive Usage
| watchplus | watch | |
|---|---|---|
| Show change history | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Line wrapping | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Precise mode | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Multiple tabs running commands simultaneously | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Pause, rewind and fast-forward | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Scroll up and down with long output | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Follow new output, similar to tail -f | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Read commonly used commands from a file | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Save, load, and distribute runs | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Support for streaming commands such as ping | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Interactive commands while running | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Extensive use of multiprocessing for minimal overhead | ✔️ | ❌ |
- Testing and validation: capture valid results or bugs and share with developers.
- Troubleshooting software development: watch and rewind your script's output.
- System monitoring: capture OS issues, networking, log files, proc files, etc.
Simply copy watchplus to the location of your choice. watchplus is a single file python script, no installation needed.
Manually specify commands:
watchplus "free -h" -- -b "dmesg" -- -s "ping 1.1.1.1" -- "top -b -n 1"Use a command file: (sample_command_file is provided in this repo for testing)
watchplus -f <command_file>Load a previously saved run:
watchplus -o <run_file>All command line options:
System options (applies to all tabs):
-n <s>, --interval <s> Interval in <seconds>, minimum .01, default = 1.0.
-p, --precise Attempt to maintain interval, drop frame if not completed in time.
-v, --version Show version number.
-h, --help Show this help.
Tab/Command options:
-- Separator for commands on command line. Not needed for the first one.
Example: watchplus -n 1 "dmesg" -- -s "ping -4 1.1.1.1" -- "nstat"
-s, --streaming Use with continual streaming commands such as tcpdump and ping.
-b, --bottom Start this tab at the bottom of the output, similar to follow option.
-x, --change Do not display change history. Can be toggled on/off with 'x'.
-l, --line_wrap Disable line wrap. Can be toggled on/off with 'l'.
-g, --green Use green text.
-t <t>, --tab <t> Assign this command to tab <t> if possible, 1-20.
"command" Command to be run, up to 20 allowed, each in in a separate tab.
Note: enclose in DOUBLE quotes with inside escaped quotes as needed.
Common controls:
Space ............................... Play | Pause (does not stop recording)
Left | Right Arrows (ctrl, shift) ... 100 | 10 | 1 << >> 1 | 10 | 100 Frames
1-0, shift 1-0 ...................... Change tab
1-0 = tab 1-10, shft-1-0 = tab 11-20
Up | Down Arrows .................... Up | Down
Page-Up | Page-Down ................. Page up | down
g | G ............................... Top | Bottom
x ................................... Toggle change history display on/off
l ................................... Toggle line wrap
ctrl-h .............................. View this help and tab assignments
All controls:
Playback controls (all tabs at once):
Space ............................... Play | Pause (does not stop recording)
r ................................... Start | Stop recording Frames
A a s | d f F ....................... 100 | 10 | 1 << >> 1 | 10 | 100 Frames
Left | Right Arrows (ctrl, shift) ... 100 | 10 | 1 << >> 1 | 10 | 100 Frames
w | e ............................... First << >> Last Frames
Viewing controls:
1-0, shift 1-0 ...................... Change tab
1-0 = tab 1-10, shft-1-0 = tab 11-20
k j ................................. Up | Down
Up | Down Arrows .................... Up | Down
Ctrl-u | Ctrl-d ..................... Half page up | down
Ctrl-b | Ctrl-f ..................... Page up | down
Page-Up | Page-Down ................. Page up | down
g | G ............................... Top | Bottom
x ................................... Toggle change history display on/off
l ................................... Toggle line wrap
ctrl-g .............................. Toggle green text
Other controls:
ctrl-w .............................. Write frames and tabs to ~/[date_time].wp
Stops recording during write. Load: -o <f>
ctrl-h .............................. View this help and tab assignments
ctrl-c | q .......................... Quit
Note: Simply to move to the bottom of a tab to follow it's output