If you want to monitor file changes in a directory on an Apple
OS X/macOS
system, one way to do so is using
fswatch, a cross-platform
file change monitor. The utility will allow
you to monitor which files in the directory have been changed, though it doesn't
report on the particular changes made to the content of the files. You can track
the addition and deletion of files or whether files in the monitored directory
are modified. On a Mac OS X system, you can install the software using the
Homebrew package management system - see
Installing Homebrew on Mac OS X for
instructions on installing the software. Once Homebrew is installed, you
can install fswatch using the command brew install fswatch in
a
Terminal window, which provides a
command-line interface (CLI). The program
will be installed in /usr/local/bin. Once it is installed, you
can view help information by typing fswatch -h at a Terminal
window shell prompt.
$ fswatch -h
fswatch 1.14.0
Usage:
fswatch [OPTION] ... path ...
Options:
-0, --print0 Use the ASCII NUL character (0) as line separator.
-1, --one-event Exit fswatch after the first set of events is received.
--allow-overflow Allow a monitor to overflow and report it as a change event.
--batch-marker Print a marker at the end of every batch.
-a, --access Watch file accesses.
-d, --directories Watch directories only.
-e, --exclude=REGEX Exclude paths matching REGEX.
-E, --extended Use extended regular expressions.
--filter-from=FILE
Load filters from file.
--format=FORMAT Use the specified record format.
-f, --format-time Print the event time using the specified format.
--fire-idle-event Fire idle events.
-h, --help Show this message.
-i, --include=REGEX Include paths matching REGEX.
-I, --insensitive Use case insensitive regular expressions.
-l, --latency=DOUBLE Set the latency.
-L, --follow-links Follow symbolic links.
-M, --list-monitors List the available monitors.
-m, --monitor=NAME Use the specified monitor.
--monitor-property name=value
Define the specified property.
-n, --numeric Print a numeric event mask.
-o, --one-per-batch Print a single message with the number of change events.
-r, --recursive Recurse subdirectories.
-t, --timestamp Print the event timestamp.
-u, --utc-time Print the event time as UTC time.
-x, --event-flags Print the event flags.
--event=TYPE Filter the event by the specified type.
--event-flag-separator=STRING
Print event flags using the specified separator.
-v, --verbose Print verbose output.
--version Print the version of fswatch and exit.
Available monitors in this platform:
fsevents_monitor
kqueue_monitor
poll_monitor
See the man page for more information.
Report bugs to <enrico.m.crisostomo@gmail.com>.
fswatch home page: <https://github.com/emcrisostomo/fswatch>.
$
A man page
is also installed, so you can type man fswatch to
view instructions on using the application. A link to the man page can be found
in /usr/local/share/man/man7.
$ ls /usr/local/share/man/man7 fswatch.7 soxeffect.7 soxformat.7
If I want to monitor changes to a particular directory, e.g.,
~/Documents/Temp, I could use the command below
(you can terminate the program to stop monitoring with Ctrl-C):
$ fswatch ~/Documents/Temp /Users/jasmith1/Documents/Temp/smime.p7m /Users/jasmith1/Documents/Temp/.DS_Store ^C$
When I deleted the smime.p7m file from the directory, I
saw the two lines of output above displayed. If I want more detail on
what occured to the file, I can use the -x or --event-flags
option. E.g., if I move the file cert8.db to the trash
from a Finder window, I see the following output:
$ fswatch --event-flags ~/Documents/Temp /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/cert8.db Renamed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/.DS_Store PlatformSpecific Updated IsFile ^C$
From the output, it appears I renamed the file, but I actually removed it
from the directory by sending it to the trash from the Finder window. However,
if I use a
rm (remove) command in another Terminal tab to remove the file
10-12 LRC.pdf I see "Removed" as the event. And when I modify
the Jessica.txt file, I see "Updated" among the event
flags listed. When I created a file, test.txt with the
touch
command in that other Terminal tab, I see "Created" listed as the event
flag.
$ fswatch --event-flags ~/Documents/Temp /Users/jasmith1/Documents/Temp/10-12 LRC.pdf Removed IsFile /Users/jasmith1/Documents/Temp/Jessica.txt.sb-6c9fd7dc-1J3Whm Created PlatformSp ecific Renamed Updated OwnerModified AttributeModified IsFile /Users/jasmith1/Documents/Temp/Jessica.txt PlatformSpecific Renamed IsFile /Users/jasmith1/Documents/Temp/Jessica.txt.sb-6c9fd7dc-cHWhwR Removed Renamed Up dated OwnerModified IsFile /Users/jasmith1/Documents/Temp/test.txt Created IsFile ^C$
If I use the command rm -rf ~/Documents/Temp/tmp to remove
a subdirectory tmp and all the files and directories within it,
I see the following output:
$ fswatch --event-flags ~/Documents/Temp /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/[Content_Types].xml Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/_rels/.rels Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/_rels Removed IsDir /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/docProps/app.xml Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/docProps/core.xml Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/docProps/thumbnail.jpeg Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/docProps Removed IsDir /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/lu251609cvgcn.tmp Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/lu251609cvgcn.xlsx Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/_rels/workbook.xml.rels Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/_rels Removed IsDir /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/sharedStrings.xml Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/styles.xml Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/theme/theme1.xml Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/theme Removed IsDir /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/workbook.xml Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml Removed IsFile /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl/worksheets Removed IsDir /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp/xl Removed IsDir /Users/jmcamer1/Documents/Temp/tmp Removed IsDir ^C$
You can see that "IsFile" is shown for events affecting particular files while "IsDir" is shown when the subdirectories are removed.
