Mac os x watch directory for changes mac os x#
Mac os x watch directory for changes install#
Mac os x watch directory for changes update#

The time can be the local time of the machine (by default) or UTC time with -u, -utc-time.įsw is hosted on GitHub and can be obtained cloning its repository: git clone įsw can be installed using the following commands.The time format can be customised using strftime format strings with -t, -time-format.Numeric event flags can be written instead of textual ones with -n, -numeric.Latency can be customised with -l, -latency.Its output is easy to parse so that fsw output can be piped to another process. It dumps a detailed record with all the event information such as: Sat Feb 15 00:53:45 2014 - /path/to/file:inodeMetaMod modified isFile Multiple paths can be passed as different arguments: fsw file-0. It's a GNU Build System project which builds on any supported platform (OS X v. I wrote an fswatch replacement in C++ called fsw which features several improvements: In this answer, any reference to fsw should now read fswatch. See the launchd man page for more information.Įdit: fsw has been merged into fswatch. The configuration file above uses the WatchPaths option. To deactivate the ist, run: $ launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ist Every time it is changed you should see an output in the system.log (use Console.app). The desktop folder is now being monitored.

To activate the config plist save it to the LaunchAgents folder in your Library folder as 'ist'.įrom the shell you can then use the command launchctl to activate the ist by running: $ launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ist Launchd can be configured to automatically launch a program when a file path is modified.įor example the following launchd config plist will launch the program /usr/bin/logger when the desktop folder of my user account is modified: u, -utc-time Print the event time as UTC time. t, -timestamp Print the event timestamp. o, -one-per-batch Print a single message with the number of change events. i, -insensitive Use case insensitive regular expressions. f, -format-time Print the event time using the specified format. E, -extended Use exended regular expressions. e, -exclude=REGEX Exclude paths matching REGEX. 1, -one-event Exit fsw after the first set of events is received. 0, -print0 Use the ASCII NUL character (0) as line separator. Additional Options for fswatch version 1.x Usage: However, if that is the case, you should probably just check out homebrew.

Mac os x watch directory for changes install#

If you don't have a c compiler on your system you may need to install Xcode or Xcode command line tools - both free. Type these commands in Terminal.app cd /tmp

Mac os x watch directory for changes update#

The older way for versions 0.x: fswatch ~/path/to/watch ~/script/to/run/when/files/change.shĪs of 9/12/13 it was added back in to homebrew - yay! So, update your formula list ( brew update) and then all you need to do is: brew install fswatch The new way that can watch multiple paths - for versions 1.x and higher: fswatch -o ~/path/to/watch | xargs -n1 -I anywhere in your command. Update: fswatch can now be used across many platforms including BSD, Debian, and Windows. Inotify-tools package on most distributions) provides similar When an event about any change to that directory is received, the specified

Mac os x watch directory for changes mac os x#

Fswatch is a small program using the Mac OS X FSEvents API to monitor a directory.