dwatch

Overview

dwatch (diff watch) is a tool to monitor the output of a given command and notify the user on changes by sending an email with a diff view.

Installation

dwatch is available on PyPI and can be installed with pip:

python3 -m pip install dwatch

At least Python 3.6 is required.

If you run an Arch-based system, you can also install dwatch from the AUR:

yay -S dwatch

You can also download self-contained executables (no Python installation required) for Linux x64 and macOS x64 from the releases page.

Usage

By default, dwatch runs a commmand passed on the command line every 60 seconds and notifies the user on any changes. You can run a first test with:

dwatch -i 2 --stdout "date"

This runs the date command every 2 seconds and prints the output differences to stdout.

Pass the --run-once option to run one check, print a diff if necessary and exit. The diff is created against the output from the previous run (command outputs are stored in the file ~/.dwatch_command_output.json). This is especially useful in cron jobs.

Without --stdout the diff output is sent as an HTML email. By default, dwatch uses the sendmail tool for this, which is available if a local email server like Postfix or Exim is installed or if a simple mail forwarder like ssmtp is present. As an alternative, dwatch supports direct communication with a mail server with Python's builtin smtplib. This can be used if no email server is installed locally. In either case, run

dwatch --write-default-config

to create a default configuration file at ~/.dwatchrc. Open the file with a text editor and configure a sender from_address and receiver to_address in the [mail] section:

[mail]
backend = sendmail
server = mail.example.com
login_user = jane.doe
login_password = xxx
encryption = starttls
from_address = dwatch-report@example.com
to_addresses = admin@example.com

Change sendmail to smtplib to use an arbitrary email provider and set the server address, the login credentials and the encryption (none, starttls or ssl). If none is chosen, no login credentials are sent for security reasons. This can only be used for very simple mail server setups.

Configuration

These options can be configured in the file ~/.dwatchrc:

• [general] section:

  • verbosity: The logging level of the application. Can be one of quiet, error, warn, verbose or debug.

• [mail] section:

  • backend: sendmail to use the local sendmail command or smtplib to connect to an arbitrary email server with the smtp protocol.
  • server: The mail server to use. This field is ignored if the sendmail backend is chosen.
  • login_user: The login name for the mail server. This field is ignored if the sendmail backend is chosen.
  • login_password: The login password for the mail server. This field is ignored if the sendmail backend is chosen.
  • encryption: The encryption to use to connect to the mail server, can be none (not recommended!), starttls or ssl. This field is ignored if the sendmail backend is chosen. If none is chosen, no login credentials are sent for security reasons.
  • from_address: The from address in the email envelope. Many providers do not support to change the from address and overwrite this with your actual mail address.
  • to_address: The recipient address.

• [watch] section:

  • interval: The time interval in seconds between runs of the given command.
  • run_once: If set to True, the command will only be run once the program exits. This is intended to be used with cron jobs.
  • shell: Run the given command in a subshell. This is useful to allow shell patterns in a command like pipes (for example command | grep pattern).

Command line options

usage: dwatch [-h] [-i INTERVAL] [-o | -O] [-s | -S] [--stdout] [-V] [-w]
              [-q | --error | --warn | -v | --debug]
              [command]

dwatch is a tool for watching command output for changes and notifiying the
user. Default values for command line options are taken from the config file
at "~/.dwatchrc"

positional arguments:
  command               the command to watch

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i INTERVAL, --interval INTERVAL
                        set the interval for the watched command (default:
                        "2.0")
  -o, --run-once        run the given command once and exit (default: "False")
  -O, --no-run-once     don't run the given command once and exit (default:
                        "True")
  -s, --shell           run the given command in a shell subprocess (default:
                        "False")
  -S, --no-shell        don't run the given command in a shell subprocess
                        (default: "True")
  --stdout              print the diff on stdout, do not send a mail
  -V, --version         print the version number and exit
  -w, --write-default-config
                        create a configuration file with default values
                        (config filepath: "~/.dwatchrc")
  -q, --quiet           be quiet (default: "False")
  --error               print error messages (default: "False")
  --warn                print warning and error messages (default: "False")
  -v, --verbose         be verbose (default: "True")
  --debug               print debug messages (default: "False")