On Sat, 2 May 2020 at 00:15, ToddAndMargo via users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:
Hi All,

I want to run the following command

ls -al /lin-bak | grep -i OurStuff.tar | awk '{print $9,  $5}'

with a "watch" on it

How do I get past the embedded quotes issue with

$ watch -n 2 "ls -al /lin-bak | grep -i OurStuff.tar | awk '{print $9,
$5}'"
watch: failed to parse argument: 'ls -al /lin-bak | grep -i OurStuff.tar
| awk '{print ,  }'': Invalid argument

A simple workaround for this sort of tricky quoting is to make a
script out of the command pipeline.   Scripts are easier for others
to understand and can be documented with comments or even 
have a "--help" option.

--
George N. White III