Learning Linux - monitoring long running processes with pv

Learning Linux - monitoring long running processes with pv

Some things just take time. Even on modern computers with ever faster processors and storage systems, things still take time. It's easy to start a long running process and then mistakenly CTRL-C out of it, thinking it has died or locked up. Of course the more important that task, the higher the odds you'll do this. Murphy's law. However, for many processes you can reduce the chances of doing this by using the pv command to give you feedback where none normally exists. This is especially useful for really long running processes. For example backing up over a slow WAN link.

Another thing to consider is that many classic UNIX commands have been upgraded on Linux to add features including status output. For example, rsync has a progress indicator option to give you some feedback on it's status during a copy.

#Linux  
http://www.tecmint.com/monitor-copy-backup-tar-progress-in-linux-using-pv-command/