tldr/pages/linux/inotifywait.md

inotifywait

Waits for changes to files. More information: https://manned.org/inotifywait.

• Watch a specific file for events, exiting after the first one:

inotifywait {{path/to/file}}

• Continuously watch a specific file for events without exiting:

inotifywait {{[-m|--monitor]}} {{path/to/file}}

• Watch a directory recursively for events:

inotifywait {{[-m|--monitor]}} {{[-r|--recursive]}} {{path/to/directory}}

• Watch a directory for changes, excluding files, whose names match a regular expression:

inotifywait {{[-m|--monitor]}} {{[-r|--recursive]}} --exclude "{{regular_expression}}" {{path/to/directory}}

• Watch a file for changes, exiting when no event occurs for 30 seconds:

inotifywait {{[-m|--monitor]}} {{[-t|--timeout]}} {{30}} {{path/to/file}}

• Only watch a file for file modification events:

inotifywait {{[-e|--event]}} {{modify}} {{path/to/file}}

• Watch a file printing only events, and no status messages:

inotifywait {{[-q|--quiet]}} {{path/to/file}}

• Run a command when a file is accessed:

inotifywait {{[-e|--event]}} {{access}} {{path/to/file}} && {{command}}