Unix Question : Repeat commands, over and over?

[Kenji4861]

When I log into unix, I want it to keep showing me the latest log file on the screen... so I want the computer to keep typing

"tail -50 log_file" over and over.. say like every 3 seconds.

How can I do this?

 

[tnitsuj]

-f

 

[jfall]

Yep tail -f will show you any new additions to the file your tailing

 

[drag]

Yep tail -f will do it.

Also for other commands you can set up a infinate loop in a bash shell. To break out of it you would hit ctl-c

while echo " "
do
ls -l ~
sleep 1
done

PS
For the while loop.... When you do something like "while command" or "if command" it will execute the loop based on the return value of the command. Each command returns a value when it comletes. To see the return value type "echo $?" immediately after the command is finished. A return of 0 will means that the command is succesfull. Other return values can indicate error codes. Since echo " " always works then the loop will go forever.

 

[Kenji4861]

oh my god.. this is so cool. Thanks guys!