¿Cómo puedo desplazarme dentro de la salida de mi comando watch?

Uso el watchcomando para ver cómo cambia el contenido de mi directorio a medida que se ejecuta un script en él (a través de watch ls dir/)

Es una gran herramienta, excepto que parece que no puedo desplazarme hacia abajo o hacia arriba para ver todo el contenido una vez que el número de entradas llena la longitud vertical de la pantalla.

¿Hay alguna forma de hacer esto?

watches genial, pero esta es una de las cosas que no puede hacer. Puede usar tailpara mostrar las últimas entradas:

watch "ls -rtx dir/ | tail -n $(($LINES - 2))"

He creado un pequeño programa que hace exactamente lo que quieres en Python. Encuéntralo aquí , se llama pwatch.

He creado un programa bash ** swatch ** que hace exactamente lo que quieres en bash. En el video gif, puede ver cómo desplazarse por un archivo mmio cambiante.

#!/bin/bash
#
# watch a file and scroll 
#
# keys => arrow-up/down, page-up/down, pos1, end
#
# usages:
#           swatch -n <timeout_watch> <file>
#           swatch <file>
#
# version:          1.1
# dependencies:     awk , tput , clear, read
# published:        https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/3842/how-can-i-scroll-within-the-output-of-my-watch-command
# gif recording:    peek , https://github.com/phw/peek

#
# =============================================
# KEYCODES
# =============================================
# https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/294908/read-special-keys-in-bash
# showkey -a


# =============================================
# DEFAULTS
# =============================================
fname=""
line_show_begin=1
line_show_begin_last=-1
console_lines_correction=4
timeout_watch=2
timeout_read=.1


# =============================================
# DEFINE Escape-Sequences
# =============================================

# http://ascii-table.com/ansi-escape-sequences-vt-100.php

ESC_clr_line='\033[K'
ESC_reset_screen='\033c'
ESC_clr_screen='\033[2J'
ESC_cursor_pos='\033[0;0f'
ESC_cursor_home='\033[H'


# =============================================
# FUNCTIONS
# =============================================


function fn_help() {
cat << EOF
Usage: ./$0 [-n <timeout>] [<file>]  ,  timeout >0.1s , default 2s
EOF
}


function get_options() {

    [[ "$1" == "" ]] && { fn_help ; exit 1 ; }

    while [ -n "$1" ]; do

        case "$1" in

        -h|--help) 
            fn_help
            ;;

        -n) 
            [[ "$2" == "" ]] && { echo "Error: option -n required <timeout>" ; exit 1 ; }
            if [[ "$(echo "$2<0.1"|bc)" == "0" ]] ; then 
                timeout_watch="$2" 
                shift
            else
                echo "Error: timeout <0.1 not allowed"
                exit 1
            fi
            ;;

        -*) 
                echo "Error: unknown option »$1«"
                exit 1
            ;;

        *)
            if [[ -f "$1" ]] ; then
                fname=$1
            else
                echo "Error: file not found »$1«"
                exit 1
            fi
            ;;

        esac

        shift

    done

    [[ "$fname" == "" ]] && { echo "Error: file required" ; exit 1 ; }

}


function fn_print_headline() {

    hdl_txt_right="${HOSTNAME}: $(date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")"
    hdl_txt_left="$fname , ${timeout_watch}s , $line_show_begin"

    hdl_txt_left_length=${#hdl_txt_left}

    printf '%s%*s\n\n' "$hdl_txt_left" "$(($console_columns-$hdl_txt_left_length))" "$hdl_txt_right"

}


function fn_print_file() {

    # ---------------------------------------------------
    # file lenght can change while watch
    # ---------------------------------------------------

    lines_fname=$(awk 'END {print NR}' $fname)

    line_last=$(($lines_fname-$console_lines))

    (( "$line_last" < "1" )) && { line_last=1; clear; }

    (( "$line_show_begin" > "$line_last" )) && { line_show_begin=$line_last; clear; }


    # ---------------------------------------------------
    # print postion changed
    # ---------------------------------------------------

    if (( "$line_show_begin" != "$line_show_begin_last" )) ; then

        line_show_begin_last=$line_show_begin;
        clear

    else

        printf $ESC_cursor_home

    fi


    # ---------------------------------------------------
    # print file section
    # ---------------------------------------------------

    fn_print_headline
    awk -v var1="$line_show_begin" -v var2="$console_lines" 'NR>=var1 {if (NR>var1+var2) {exit 0} else {printf "%s\n",$0 } }' $fname

}


function fn_console_size_change() {

    console_columns=$(tput cols)
    console_lines=$(($(tput lines)-$console_lines_correction))
    line_show_begin_last=-1

}


function fn_quit() {

    echo "quit" $0 , $?

    setterm -cursor on ; exit 0

}


# =============================================
# GET OPTIONS
# =============================================

get_options "$@"    # pass all arguments with double-quotes



# =============================================
# INIT TRAP
# =============================================

trap "fn_console_size_change" SIGWINCH # https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(IPC)#SIGWINCH
trap "fn_quit" INT TERM EXIT


# =============================================
# MAIN
# =============================================

fn_console_size_change
setterm -cursor off


while true ; do

    fn_print_file

    read -rsn1 -t $timeout_watch k # char 1

    case "$k" in

    [[:graph:]])
        # Normal input handling
        ;;
    $'\x09') # TAB
        # Routine for selecting current item
        ;;
    $'\x7f') # Back-Space
        # Routine for back-space
        ;;
    $'\x01') # Ctrl+A
        # Routine for ctrl+a
        ;;
    $'\x1b') # ESC

        read -rsn1 k # char 2
        [[ "$k" == ""  ]] && return  Esc-Key
        [[ "$k" == "[" ]] && read -rsn1 -t $timeout_read k # char 3
        [[ "$k" == "O" ]] && read -rsn1 -t $timeout_read k # char 3

        case "$k" in

        A)  # Arrow-Up-Key
            (( "$line_show_begin" > "1" )) && line_show_begin=$(($line_show_begin-1))
            ;;

        B)  # Arrow-Down-Key
            (( "$line_show_begin" < "$line_last" )) && line_show_begin=$(($line_show_begin+1))
            ;;

        H)  # Pos1-Key
            line_show_begin=1
            ;;

        F)  # End-Key
            line_show_begin=$line_last
            ;;

        5)  # PgUp-Key
            read -rsn1 -t $timeout_read k # char 4

            if [[ "$k" == "~" ]] && (( "$line_show_begin" > "$(($console_lines/2))" )) ; then
                line_show_begin=$(($line_show_begin-$console_lines/2))
            else
                line_show_begin=1
            fi
            ;;

        6)  # PgDown-Key
            read -rsn1 -t $timeout_read k # char 4

            if [[ "$k" == "~" ]] && (( "$line_show_begin" < "$(($line_last-$console_lines/2))" )) ; then
                line_show_begin=$(($line_show_begin+$console_lines/2))
            else
                line_show_begin=$line_last
            fi
            ;;

        esac

        read -rsn4 -t $timeout_read    # Try to flush out other sequences ...

        ;;

    esac

done

Podrías usar el paquete pycha watchall ; Su uso es el mismo que el reloj.

sudo pip install watchall