LinuxQuestions.org - using watch to make a log?

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- - using watch to make a log? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/using-watch-to-make-a-log-385379/)

using watch to make a log?

is it possible to make watch r edirect it's output into a file to make a kind of makeshift log? so if i wanted to log my cpu temperature i'd do this:

Code:

watch -n.5 cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/ATF0/temperature

only somehow get it to save each output to a file so it would look something like this:

Code:

temperature:            53 C

temperature:            53 C

temperature:            53 C

temperature:            53 C

temperature:            51 C

temperature:            54 C

temperature:            53 C

temperature:            53 C

temperature:            57 C

temperature:            55 C

temperature:            55 C

if i could get it to only save the output when the number changes it would be even better.

After taking a really quick look at the watch man page, I'd think you could just tack on ">> somelog.file" to the end of your command to redirect the output to the file.

Then again, rather than using watch, which I suspect you're running from a command line, possibly in the background, why not try running the cat statement with the redirect in a cron job? Make sure you use ">>" and not ">" so you will be appending to the log file, rather than overwriting it each time it executes.

-Alan

appending >> on watch didnt work, but i'll try the cron thing. thx