inotifywait

Wait for changes to files. tldr-pages

On Linux

Linux

Watch a specific file for events, exiting after the first one

inotifywait path/to/fileIdentify

Continuously watch a specific file for events without exiting

inotifywait --monitor path/to/fileIdentify

Watch a directory recursively for events

inotifywait --monitor --recursive path/to/directoryIdentify

Watch a directory for changes, excluding files, whose names match a regex

inotifywait --monitor --recursive --exclude "regex" path/to/directoryIdentify

Watch a file for changes, exiting when no event occurs for 30 seconds

inotifywait --monitor --timeout 30 path/to/fileIdentify

Only watch a file for file modification events

inotifywait --event modify path/to/fileIdentify

Watch a file printing only events, and no status messages

inotifywait --quiet path/to/fileIdentify

Run a command when a file is accessed

inotifywait --event access path/to/file && commandIdentify