NAME
dnotify − Execute a command when the contents of a directory change
SYNOPSIS
dnotify [OPTION]... DIRECTORY... [-e COMMAND...]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page document describes the dnotify command.
The dnotify program executes COMMAND every time the contents of any of the specified directories change. If a command is not specified, ’echo {}’ is assumed.
What is considered a change is determined by the ’--access’, ’--modify’, ’--create’, ’--delete’, ’--rename’ and ’--attrib’ options (see below). These options may be combined. If none of them are specified, create and delete are assumed.
The string ’{}’ in the command specification is replaced by the name of the directory that was updated.
OPTIONS
These programs
follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options
starting with two dashes (’-’).
−A, −−access
Trigger the command when a file in one of the directories was accessed (read).
−M, −−modify
Trigger the command when a file in one of the directories was modified (i.e. written or truncated).
−C, −−create
Trigger the command when a file was created in a directory.
−D, −−delete
Trigger the command when a file was removed from a directory.
−R, −−rename
Trigger the command when a file in one of the directories was renamed.
−B, −−attrib
Trigger the command when a file in one of the directories had its attributes changed (as a result of chmod or chown).
−a, −−all
Trigger the command when any of the events above occurs. That is, this is a shorthand for ’-AMCDRO’.
−e, −−execute=COMMAND...
This option specifies the command to execute. All arguments (including possible options) following this option are treated as arguments to the command.
−p, −−processes=COUNT
This option specifies the maximum number of commands to be run at the same time. It is possible to allow an unlimited number of commands to be run at the same time by specifying COUNT as 0 or -1.
The default value is 1.
−q, −−queue=DEPTH
This option specifies the maximum number of commands to queue up while there are other commands already executing. This is usually used in conjunction with the --processes option. An unlimited depth of the queue can be achieved by specifying DEPTH as -1.
The default value is -1.
−t, −−times=COUNT
Exit dnotify once the command has been run (and finished running) COUNT times.
−o, −−once
Exit dnotify when the specified command has been run once. This is equivalent to ’--times 1’
−r, −−recursive
Traverse the specified directories and monitor all subdirectories (at any depth) as well.
−s, −−silent, −−quiet
Do not print warnings when the executed commands exits with a non-zero return value.
−−help |
Show summary of options. |
−−version
Output version information and exit.
EXAMPLES
Print
’change’ to the terminal every time a file (or
part of file) in /etc is read.
dnotify -A /etc -e echo change
Execute the
script ’informdelete’ every time a file in
/var/mail is created or deleted.
dnotify -CD /var/mail -e informdelete
AUTHOR
dnotify was written by Oskar Liljeblad <oskar [AT] osk.nu>.