node-inotifywait
Yet another nodejs fs.watch implementation that can watch:
- folders recursively
- big number of directories and files
- with low CPU use
This implementation is a wrapper above the inotifywait system command.
Why
Because other implementations:
Are not performant for huge number of directories and files watching. Some are not recursive, other have high CPU usage when watching lot of directories and files.
Installation
npm install inotifywait
Prerequisit is to have the inotifywait
command in the current PATH. On debian/ubuntu, you have to sudo apt-get install inotify-tools
Events
-
add (p1 = filename, isDir): received when a file or directory is added
-
change (p1 = filename, isDir): received when a file is modified
-
unlink (p1 = filename, isDir): received when a file or directory is deleted
-
unknown (p1 = filename, p2 = full raw event object): received when unknown action is done on a file or directory
-
ready (p1 = unix process object): received when inotifywait is ready to watch files or directories
-
close (no parameter): received when inotifywait exited
-
error (p1 = error object): received when an error occures
Example
var INotifyWait = require('inotifywait');
var watch1 = new INotifyWait('/tmp/', { recursive: false });
watch1.on('ready', function (filename) {
console.log('watcher is watching');
});
watch1.on('add', function (filename) {
console.log(filename + ' added');
watch1.close(); // stop watching
});
var watch2 = new INotifyWait('/var/log/', { recursive: true });
watch2.on('change', function (filename) {
console.log(filename + ' changed');
watch2.close(); // stop watching
});