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@espaciomore
Last active August 5, 2024 18:24
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Watch command for Git Bash
#!/bin/bash
ARGS="${@}"
clear;
while(true); do
OUTPUT=`$ARGS`
clear
echo -e "${OUTPUT[@]}"
done
@saadzimat430
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@mchandschuh for Windows users, in which folder should I paste the .sh script?

@8ctopus
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8ctopus commented Mar 31, 2021

@saadzimat430 C:\Users\{user}\.bashrc

@keydon
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keydon commented Sep 7, 2021

I tweaked @mchandschuh version a little more by executing the command before clearing the screen. Espacially for long-running commands there is no more flickering for me.

#!/bin/bash
ARGS="${@}"
clear;
while(true); do
  OUTPUT=`$ARGS`
  clear
  echo -e "${OUTPUT[@]}"
  sleep 1
done

@TGillispie
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TGillispie commented Sep 23, 2021

Thanks for this and all the improvements!

I made a version that is nearly flicker-less. It clears the previous 25 lines. Any lines of output beyond 25 will scroll.

#!/bin/bash
ARGS="${@}"
clear;
while(true); do
  OUTPUT=`$ARGS`
  for i in {1..25}; do
    printf '\e[1A\e[K'
  done

  echo -e "${OUTPUT[@]}"
  sleep 1
done

@hkskoglund
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mingw64 does not have watch so I found this gist. I tried to look at the esacpe sequence of original watch with strace with strace -f watch echo test. Found this escape sequence: write(1, "\33[1;75H", 7�[1;75H) = 7

#!/usr/bin/bash
interval=2
if [ "$1" = "-n" ]; then # allow -n {interval} at start 
  interval=$2
  shift 2
fi
clear
while true; do
   printf "%b\n\n" "\033[1;1HEvery $interval s:$*\033[1;75H$(hostname): $(date)"
   "$@"
   sleep "$interval" 
done

@FarisHijazi
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you can add it as a function to ~/.bash_aliases

watch () {
  ARGS="${@}"
  clear;
  while(true); do
    clear
    OUTPUT=`$ARGS`
    echo -e "${OUTPUT[@]}"
    sleep 1
  done
}

@sturdy5
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sturdy5 commented May 21, 2023

And I added some additional information to the watch function to make it look like it does in native linux -

watch () {
  ARGS="${@}"
  clear;
  while(true); do
    OUTPUT=`$ARGS`
    clear
    echo -e "Every 1.0s: $ARGS"
    echo ""
    echo -e "${OUTPUT[@]}"
    sleep 1
  done
}

@kevingigiano
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And I added some additional information to the watch function to make it look like it does in native linux -

watch () {
  ARGS="${@}"
  clear;
  while(true); do
    OUTPUT=`$ARGS`
    clear
    echo -e "Every 1.0s: $ARGS"
    echo ""
    echo -e "${OUTPUT[@]}"
    sleep 1
  done
}

this is awesome!!!

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