rkallos / erl-filewatch

Simple file watching for Erlang

Minimal file and directory watching in Erlang using inotify

Building

rebar3 compile

Usage

filewatch:start(Pid, Pairs = [{File, Term} ...]) -> {ok, Handle} | {error, _}

This is an application built around an Erlang port driver that interacts with inotify. You feed it a list of {File, Term} pairs, and when inotify detects events occurring at File, filewatch sends Term to Pid.

How it works

An inotify watch descriptor is opened for every unique directory in Pairs. When events for a particular watch descriptor are received from the Port Driver, they are filtered to only include the files specified in Paths. Watch descriptors are opened on directories rather than individual files to prevent having to reopen watch descriptors for files that get replaced.

TODO

• Add cooldown timeout in Erlang

• Add (more) tests

• Add target for afl-fuzz