A simple bash script top-like program for mysql based on mysqladmin and dialog (well stty too, but its part of coreutils)

mytop.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Top-like script for MySQL

DELAY=2

TTY_WIDTH=$(($(stty size | awk '{print $2}')-6)) # determine terminal width
TTY_HEIGHT=$(($(stty size | awk '{print $1}')-6)) # determine terminal height

while true; do
        content="Status:\n"
        content="$content$(mysqladmin status)\n"
        content="${content}\nActive Queries:\n$(mysqladmin processlist)"
        dialog --backtitle "MySQL top" --no-collapse --cr-wrap --infobox "$content" $TTY_HEIGHT $TTY_WIDTH
        sleep $DELAY
done