noticeme

Provides python bindings for inotify and framework for building file watchers using coroutines.

Please note this only runs on Linux and a have no plans to support any other OS.

There are many, many alternatives though.

noticeme includes the noticeme command for quickly setting up a file watcher.

Using noticeme declaratively

If you just need a small file watcher you can try this out.

pip install --user noticeme # install
noticeme init # writes an initial config to .noticeme
noticeme # start watching

To see a full list of events:

  noticeme events

To select which watchers we want to run we can give a list.
Say we had watchers named build:js, build:css, and test in a single config file.
In one terminal we could run:

  noticeme build:js build:css

And in another:

  noticeme test

Quick look at configuration

see noticeme/examples/noticeme.cfg for details

# noticeme.cfg
[should]
  clear_screen = yes

[imports]
  example = A .py file with a @noticeme.watcher decorator in it

[my_watcher]
  description = This is an example.
  paths = . **
  events = written
  regex = ^docs
  glob = *.txt
  shell = echo "my_watcher: file was added"

Using noticeme to build a file watcher programmatically

import asyncio
import noticeme

@noticeme.watcher('/path/to/directory', 'created modified')
async def my_watcher(event):
  if '.py' == event.path.suffix.lower():
    proc = await asyncio.create_subprocess_exec('cmd', event.path.absolute())
    await proc.wait()

if __name__ == '__main__':
  noticeme.run()

Requirements

• Linux >= 2.6.13
• Python >= 3.5
• cffi
• C compiler installed (if you need to run inotify_build.py)

Install

pip

pip install --user noticeme

Include directly

• Copy noticeme.py and inotify_build.py to your project directory
• Within noticeme's package directory run:

python3 inotify_build.py

• This creates a 'build' directory containing the result of ffibuilder.compile
• You should now be able to use noticeme.
• inotify_build.py will no longer be needed.

Alternatives

watchdog pyinotify

Version 2019.7

• set a more informative window title

Version 2019.8

• add '.noticeme' as possible config file

Version 2019.11

• add 'init' command to write example config file