FileWatcher

Listen to file modifications using polling and notifies you about the changes. Pure Crystal implementation, no dependencies.

Installation

1. Add the dependency to your shard.yml:

   dependencies:
     file_watcher:
       github: stephannv/file_watcher
   

2. Run shards install

Usage

require "file_watcher"

Basic usage

FileWatcher.watch("/path/to/folder/**/*.txt") do |event|
  puts event.path # Path to file, eg. "path/to/folder/file.txt"
end

Multiple patterns

FileWatcher.watch("/path/to/folder/**/*", "/other/folder/**/*") do |event|
  # do something
end

Event types

The type could be FileWatcher::EventType::Added, FileWatcher::EventType::Changed or FileWatcher::EventType::Deleted.

FileWatcher.watch("/path/to/folder/**/*") do |event|
  event.type.added?
  event.type.changed?
  event.type.deleted?

  # using case
  case event.type
  in .added?
    # do something
  in .changed?
    # do something
  in .deleted?
    # do something
  end
end

Using Path instead of String

FileWatcher.watch(Path["~path/to/folder/**/*"].expand(home: true)) do |event|
  # do something
end

Using File::MatchOptions

It allows to listen to hidden files, dot files, etc. The default value is File::MatchOptions.glob_default. Read more here: [https://crystal-lang.org/api/File/MatchOptions.html].

FileWatcher.watch("/path/to/folder/**/*", match_options: File::MatchOptions::DotFiles) do |event|
  puts event.path # eg. "path/to/folder/.file"
end

Symlinks

You can listen to changes in symlinks using follow_symlinks: true.

FileWatcher.watch("/path/to/folder/**/*", follow_symlinks: true) do |event|
  # do something
end

Poll interval

By default the interval between each check is 1 second, you can change it passing interval: your_value.

FileWatcher.watch("/path/to/folder/**/*", interval: 0.10.seconds) do |event|
  # do something
end

Development

• crystal spec to run tests.

Contributing

1. Fork it (https://github.com/stephannv/file_watcher/fork)
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request

Contributors

• stephann - creator and maintainer