wc-duck/fswatcher

cross-platform filewatcher library for c/c++

What is it?

fswatcher is exactly what it sounds like, a platform independet wrapping of the different filesystem watcher systems on different platforms.

Note that it is currently under development and there are bugs and blemishes all over the place. Bugfixes/optimizations/implementations for other platforms is always appreciated!

Currently supported platforms:

• Linux via inotify
• Windows via ReadDirectoryChangesW

OSX port is worked on.

Why writing this?

Simply put to scratch my own itch with me not finding a library to do this written in a way that I like and with not that much code. The goal is not to make the most fully functional filesystem watcher ever, but rather a library that cover most peoples needs in a stable way.

Rules of engagement

The user always knows better how his/her system works, we can't decide on how the user allocates memory in their app or how the work with threads. So all memory allocations that is made by the library should be well defined how they work and be done by a user-provided allocator if provided. Also the library is poll-based ( blocking or non-blocking ) so the user can decide for them self if placing it in its own thread or not is the way to go.

Path and unicode

Different os:es = different encodings for paths =/ The way fswatcher deals with this is to always input and output utf8 encoded strings.

fswatcher's Issues

Handling Symbolic Links

It would be awesome if this tool could handle symbolic links and watch for changes inside those as well.

Implement FSWATCHER_PATH_ENCODING_***

Macro currently do nothing!

fswatcher_create() uses CreateFile() and not CreateFileW(), this would lead to issues with non-ascii paths

fix it!

Save file once event triggers twice

Hi,

I have noticed that, at least in Windows, when I save a file, the event triggers twice.
I'm using fswatcher_poll.
This could be a bug in the Windows API though:

• https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/f68a4510-2264-41f2-b611-9f1633bca21d/filesystemwatcher-changed-event-fires-twice-why-bug?forum=csharpgeneral
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1764809/filesystemwatcher-changed-event-is-raised-twice

MacOS implement

any idea how to implement it on osx？