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watchdog - Filesystem events monitoring
Published by Tim Cuthbertson
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Watchdog ======== Python API and shell utilities to monitor file system events. Example API Usage ----------------- A simple program that uses watchdog to monitor directories specified as command-line arguments and logs events generated: .. code-block:: python import sys import time import logging from watchdog.observers import Observer from watchdog.events import LoggingEventHandler if __name__ == "__main__": logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, format='%(asctime)s - %(message)s', datefmt='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') path = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else '.' event_handler = LoggingEventHandler() observer = Observer() observer.schedule(event_handler, path, recursive=True) observer.start() try: while True: time.sleep(1) except KeyboardInterrupt: observer.stop() observer.join() Shell Utilities --------------- Watchdog comes with a utility script called ``watchmedo``. Please type ``watchmedo --help`` at the shell prompt to know more about this tool. Here is how you can log the current directory recursively for events related only to ``*.py`` and ``*.txt`` files while ignoring all directory events: .. code-block:: bash watchmedo log \ --patterns="*.py;*.txt" \ --ignore-directories \ --recursive \ . You can use the ``shell-command`` subcommand to execute shell commands in response to events: .. code-block:: bash watchmedo shell-command \ --patterns="*.py;*.txt" \ --recursive \ --command='echo "${watch_src_path}"' \ . Please see the help information for these commands by typing: .. code-block:: bash watchmedo [command] --help About ``watchmedo`` Tricks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ``watchmedo`` can read ``tricks.yaml`` files and execute tricks within them in response to file system events. Tricks are actually event handlers that subclass ``watchdog.tricks.Trick`` and are written by plugin authors. Trick classes are augmented with a few additional features that regular event handlers don't need. An example ``tricks.yaml`` file: .. code-block:: yaml tricks: - watchdog.tricks.LoggerTrick: patterns: ["*.py", "*.js"] - watchmedo_webtricks.GoogleClosureTrick: patterns: ['*.js'] hash_names: true mappings_format: json # json|yaml|python mappings_module: app/javascript_mappings suffix: .min.js compilation_level: advanced # simple|advanced source_directory: app/static/js/ destination_directory: app/public/js/ files: index-page: - app/static/js/vendor/jquery*.js - app/static/js/base.js - app/static/js/index-page.js about-page: - app/static/js/vendor/jquery*.js - app/static/js/base.js - app/static/js/about-page/**/*.js The directory containing the ``tricks.yaml`` file will be monitored. Each trick class is initialized with its corresponding keys in the ``tricks.yaml`` file as arguments and events are fed to an instance of this class as they arrive. Tricks will be included in the 0.5.0 release. I need community input about them. Please file enhancement requests at the `issue tracker`_. Installation ------------ Installing from PyPI using ``pip``: .. code-block:: bash $ pip install watchdog Installing from PyPI using ``easy_install``: .. code-block:: bash $ easy_install watchdog Installing from source: .. code-block:: bash $ python setup.py install Installation Caveats ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The ``watchmedo`` script depends on PyYAML_ which links with LibYAML_, which brings a performance boost to the PyYAML parser. However, installing LibYAML_ is optional but recommended. On Mac OS X, you can use homebrew_ to install LibYAML: .. code-block:: bash $ brew install libyaml On Linux, use your favorite package manager to install LibYAML. Here's how you do it on Ubuntu: .. code-block:: bash $ sudo aptitude install libyaml-dev On Windows, please install PyYAML_ using the binaries they provide. Documentation ------------- You can browse the latest release documentation_ online. Supported Platforms ------------------- * Linux 2.6 (inotify) * Mac OS X (FSEvents, kqueue) * FreeBSD/BSD (kqueue) * Windows (ReadDirectoryChangesW with I/O completion ports; ReadDirectoryChangesW worker threads) * OS-independent (polling the disk for directory snapshots and comparing them periodically; slow and not recommended) Note that when using watchdog with kqueue, you need the number of file descriptors allowed to be opened by programs running on your system to be increased to more than the number of files that you will be monitoring. The easiest way to do that is to edit your ``~/.profile`` file and add a line similar to:: ulimit -n 1024 This is an inherent problem with kqueue because it uses file descriptors to monitor files. That plus the enormous amount of bookkeeping that watchdog needs to do in order to monitor file descriptors just makes this a painful way to monitor files and directories. In essence, kqueue is not a very scalable way to monitor a deeply nested directory of files and directories with a large number of files. About using watchdog with editors like Vim ------------------------------------------ Vim does not modify files unless directed to do so. It creates backup files and then swaps them in to replace the files you are editing on the disk. This means that if you use Vim to edit your files, the on-modified events for those files will not be triggered by watchdog. You may need to configure Vim to appropriately to disable this feature. Dependencies ------------ 1. Python 2.5 or above. 2. pathtools_ 3. select_backport_ (select.kqueue replacement for Python2.5/2.6 on BSD/Mac OS X) 4. XCode_ (only on Mac OS X) 5. PyYAML_ (only for ``watchmedo`` script) 6. argh_ (only for ``watchmedo`` script) Licensing --------- Watchdog is licensed under the terms of the `Apache License, version 2.0`_. Copyright 2011 `Yesudeep Mangalapilly`_. Copyright 2012 Google, Inc. Project `source code`_ is available at Github. Please report bugs and file enhancement requests at the `issue tracker`_. Why Watchdog? ------------- Too many people tried to do the same thing and none did what I needed Python to do: * pnotify_ * `unison fsmonitor`_ * fsmonitor_ * guard_ * pyinotify_ * `inotify-tools`_ * jnotify_ * treewalker_ * `file.monitor`_ * pyfilesystem_ .. links: .. _Yesudeep Mangalapilly: yesudeep@gmail.com .. _source code: http://github.com/gorakhargosh/watchdog .. _issue tracker: http://github.com/gorakhargosh/watchdog/issues .. _Apache License, version 2.0: http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 .. _documentation: http://packages.python.org/watchdog/ .. _homebrew: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ .. _select_backport: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/select_backport .. _argh: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/argh .. _PyYAML: http://www.pyyaml.org/ .. _XCode: http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/xcode.html .. _LibYAML: http://pyyaml.org/wiki/LibYAML .. _pathtools: http://github.com/gorakhargosh/pathtools .. _pnotify: http://mark.heily.com/pnotify .. _unison fsmonitor: https://webdav.seas.upenn.edu/viewvc/unison/trunk/src/fsmonitor.py?view=markup&pathrev=471 .. _fsmonitor: http://github.com/shaurz/fsmonitor .. _guard: http://github.com/guard/guard .. _pyinotify: http://github.com/seb-m/pyinotify .. _inotify-tools: http://github.com/rvoicilas/inotify-tools .. _jnotify: http://jnotify.sourceforge.net/ .. _treewalker: http://github.com/jbd/treewatcher .. _file.monitor: http://github.com/pke/file.monitor .. _pyfilesystem: http://code.google.com/p/pyfilesystem
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Version Released Stability Platform Download 0.7.0 2014-01-08 Any Download (77013 bytes) - Required libraries
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