This issue was found on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) Desktop.
If your coding in python and trying to write utf-8 encoded files, save yourself some time. The ‘watch’ command on Ubuntu Hardy does not display utf-8 characters when watching the contents of a file that contains them.
The file contents with the utf-8 character:
“This line shows a ‘»’ (Guillemot right) and a ‘®’ (Trademark sign).”
The command that doesn’t work:
watch cat /path/to/some/file.txt
Shows this:
Every 5.0s: cat file.txt Thu May 22 07:36:22 2008 "This line shows a '' (Guillemot right) and a '' (Trademark sign)."
The command that does work:
while true ; do cat /path/to/some/file.txt ; sleep 2 ; clear ; done
Shows this:
"This line shows a '»' (Guillemot right) and a '®' (Trademark sign)."
So if your learning proper encoding of utf-8 in python this does save you time when you’re troubeshooting your code .. 
GrtzG
