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Writing a simple file watcher using GNU Utils
Posted on 13 Dec, 2021
This simple file change watching script requires these two key utilities:
- 1.
gdate - 2.
gstat
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#!/usr/bin/env bash
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set -eo pipefail
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IFS=#x27;\n\t'
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cleanup() {
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# perform any post script completion tasks
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printf "\n%s" "Cleanup Tasks ..."
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exit
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}
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perform_task() {
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# do stuff
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printf "\n%s" "Performing Task ($(date +%I:%M:%S)) ..."
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}
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trap "cleanup" SIGINT
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watch_changes() {
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echo -en "\rWatching file $(tput bold)$1$(tput sgr0) ...\n"
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while true; do
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past_modify_time=$(gdate -d "@$(gstat -c '%Y' "$1")" '+%T')
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# sleep for 100 milliseconds
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sleep 0.1
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new_modify_time=$(gdate -d "@$(gstat -c '%Y' "$1")" '+%T')
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[[ "$past_modify_time" != "$new_modify_time" ]] && perform_task
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done
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}
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if [[ -z "$1" ]]; then
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echo -e "requires a file as an argument"
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exit 1
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else
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watch_changes "$1"
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fi
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