gorakhargosh/watchdog
Watchdog
Watchdog is a Python library and set of shell utilities for monitoring filesystem events. It provides a framework for tracking real-time changes to files and directories, mapping those events to configurable automation handlers, and executing system actions based on file creation, modification, or deletion.
The project includes an event-driven shell utility for triggering custom scripts and commands automatically. It utilizes a configurable handler framework that allows users to associate specific filesystem events with specialized plugin logic defined in configuration files.
The system monitors disk activity using native operating system events with a fallback to periodic polling. It incorporates event filtering to restrict notifications based on file extensions or event types, and uses an observer pattern to dispatch these filtered events to registered handlers.
Features
- Filesystem Change Monitors - Provides a system for tracking real-time modifications to files and directories to trigger automated actions.
- Event-Driven Shell Utilities - Includes a command-line utility for executing system actions based on filtered file creation and modification events.
- Shell Command Execution - Provides the capability to spawn and execute external system processes and shell scripts.
- Event-Driven Execution - Automatically executes shell commands or scripts in response to detected filesystem events.
- OS Event Bindings - Provides native bindings to operating system APIs for immediate notification of filesystem modifications.
- Task Triggers - Triggers automated tasks and scripts immediately when files are created, modified, or deleted.
- Filesystem Monitoring Libraries - Ships as a Python library for tracking real-time file and directory changes via native events or polling.
- Development Workflow Automators - Automates development workflows by triggering build scripts, tests, or linters on file save.
- Task Automation Engines - Ships an engine for executing sequences of background operations via predefined event handlers.
- Event Filtering Rules - Includes rules for filtering filesystem notifications based on path patterns and file extensions.
- Configurable Handler Frameworks - Provides a framework for mapping filesystem events to specialized handler classes defined in configuration files.
- Custom Event Handlers - Enables specialized logic to respond to filesystem changes using configurable plugins and event filters.
- Filesystem Polling - Provides a polling-based fallback mechanism that checks file timestamps to detect changes when OS events are unavailable.
- Handler Mapping - Maps filesystem events to custom action routines using a configurable plugin-based handler framework.
- Event Dispatchers - Implements an event dispatcher to route detected filesystem changes to registered handler objects.
- Filesystem Filters - Implements filters to restrict filesystem notifications based on file extensions or event types.
- File And Path Utilities - Monitoring and reacting to filesystem events.
- File System Utilities - API and shell tools for monitoring file system events.
