inconsistent cat output

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

Hi
I'm executing a menu script in which I `cat a file` but it's giving different output some times. Following is the code fragment taken from my script.

while true
do
cat procs.configured
echo ---------separator--------------
sleep 3
done

when I execute this code fragment, `cat` outputs the file procs.configured in a jumbled way. is there any buffering kind of things needs to be taken care.

Appreciated your help.

2

Hard to guess without knowing whether this is a normal unix text file or whether the file is open for write by another process.
In case the data contains screen control codes, you could try:

cat -v procs.configured
3

Thanks methyl for your reply.
I tried with cat -v but no luck

procs.configured is a unix file only and it's not opened by another process.

Actually I sent the code fragment of my main menu script. procs.configured file is populated by the same menu script and will contain all the procs running status info with colors(tput and some control characters are used).

we have three environments(dev/int/uat). Right now this problem is coming in one environment. earlier it used to come in other environment.

Are there any other environment variables to check or is there any substitute command to 'cat procs.configured'.

Thanks in advance.

---------- Post updated at 01:19 AM ---------- Previous update was at 12:54 AM ----------

Hi methyl

Problem is solved.

In one of my environment, as you guessed one more menu script process running in background and populating the procs.configured file.