Question

Not really sure if this is possible, but I am running this on Terminal:

script -q \/my\/directory\/\/$outfile \.\/lexparser.csh $file

Explanation

Through a perl script. The first directory and $outfile is where I am saving the output of the Terminal command. the \.\/lexparser.csh $file is just calling on that script to work on the input file, $file.

Problem

However, I put -q b/c I didn’t want to save the unnecessary print to the file. The file is big ~ 30 thousand lines of text. It has been running for some time now, which was expected.

Question

I would like to check and ensure everything is going smoothly. The file output name is in Finder, but I’m afraid if I click on it, it will ruin the output. How can check the progress (possibly the current text file) without disrupting the process?

Thanks for your time, let me know if the question is unclear.

Answer 1

Open a new Terminal, navigate to the output directory, and:

tail -f <output_file>

You will continue to see new appends to the file without interruption to any writing process. Just leave the Terminal open with the tail going, and you can watch it all day long. Grab some popcorn.

In addition to tail, you can also learn about tee. The point of tee is to output to a file while also outputting to STDOUT in your terminal. Best of both worlds! Well, someone good aspects of two possible worlds.