Questions tagged [inotify]

inotify is a Linux kernel subsystem that works to expand filesystems to notice changes to the filesystem, and report those changes to applications.

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User limit of inotify watches reached on Ubuntu 16.04

I just installed Ubuntu 16.04 and I get this warning when I start SmartGit: IOException: User limit of inotify watches reached Moreover I get this warning launching tail -f: tail: inotify resources ...
Andrea's user avatar
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60 votes
2 answers
56k views

How can I tell if I am out of inotify watches?

I use an application that consumes inotify watches. I've already set fs.inotify.max_user_watches=32768 in /etc/sysctl.conf but last night the application stopped indexing unless I ran it manually, ...
Jorge Castro's user avatar
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39 votes
4 answers
19k views

How do I fix a "Can't access Dropbox folder" error?

I'm having a rather strange problem with Dropbox that started a few weeks ago. Dropbox will stop syncing with the message "Can't access Dropbox folder", and refuse to sync until I reboot. I've tried ...
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13 votes
3 answers
5k views

How to run a script when a directory is changed by another user?

I know has been a bit of discussion about topics similar to this. But here is what I am basically trying to do. I have a watch directory called watched and whenever a file is added to that directory, ...
user280327's user avatar
13 votes
4 answers
10k views

Why do inotify events fire more than once

This question arises from another one that I had posed on Stackoverflow. I am using Watcher - the same issues apply to Incron - to monitor a folder and its child folders for changes and silently ...
DroidOS's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
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How do I run a python script whenever a file is created in a directory?

So, I'm trying to do this, somewhat, simple task, but I have not been successful yet. I'm hoping that changes now. The goal: Run /var/www/lager-scanner/filer/pluk_script.py whenever there is a new ...
Folkmann's user avatar
  • 193
8 votes
2 answers
5k views

Evince is no longer auto-reloading documents. How can I troubleshoot this?

Evince (the pdf viewer) used to reload my .pdf files after I compiled them in LaTeX. However, this behavior has recently stopped to the point where I have to manually reload Evince (control + R) to ...
evencoil's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
31k views

How do I get the filename from inotifywait events?

So I'm doing a simple inotifywait loop to watch for changes in a Bootstrap directory: while inotifywait -r -q --format %w bootstrap/; do echo "something happened" [[ $filename == *.js ]] &...
Oli's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
14k views

inotify/max_user_watches value resets on reboot; how to change it permanently?

Some software that I'm using needs a higher-than-default value in /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches. I can modify this value with a text editor or from the terminal, and for a little while, ...
Mark Amery's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
17k views

Monitor folder and run command if there is a file there?

I would like to have my Ubuntu monitor Folder A. If there is a .sh file there, i would like to move that file to Folder B and run it in the background. Is this possible? What should I use to make it ...
Ignacio's user avatar
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5 votes
4 answers
7k views

Stop inotifywait instance

I made a script to invoke inotifywait. It works fine, but I sometimes want to stop it. How do I stop the last inotifywait instance? I cannot understand how to use inotify_rm_watch which I understand ...
fixit7's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
12k views

Why I got Failed to allocate directory watch: Too many open files?

I tried update on 22.04 Failed to allocate directory watch: Too many open files Hit:1 https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu jammy InRelease Hit:2 https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com jammy InRelease ...
Richard Rublev's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
5k views

How does one install the PECL inotify extension for PHP7?

I'm trying to get Inotify working on PHP7. I've installed the required packages: sudo apt install php php-dev And installed Inotify with Pecl: sudo pecl install inotify But it doesn't work: $ php ...
Sam Wilson's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
3k views

inotify in a remote shell and get the output back

My problem is very similar this one: inotify not fast enough Except I am running inotify in a remote shell. I need to monitor for file change on machineA from machineB. machineB has ssh access to ...
zengr's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
5k views

How can I monitor a directory for copy & pasting files?

How can I create a script for monitoring file transferring including the source location and the destination location ? ( example : Test.file from /home/Desktop to /home/Documents ) .
Lenos Adamou's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
3k views

How to log access to a specific folder and changes in its contents?

I need to track folder access time, and want to know what changes are made to it. How do I trigger those events? Is there a way to run a specific .sh file when the folder is opened?
tvshajeer's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
7k views

sysctl: permission denied on key 'fs.inotify.max_user_watches'

I have a Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 2.6.32-042stab127.2 x86_64) VPS I am getting the following error while running my rails application FATAL: Listen error: unable to monitor directories for ...
current_user's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
863 views

Why does inotifywait create files with "swp" or goutputstream in their names?

I'm trying to learn about inotifywait. I installed inotify-tools: Start-Date: 2019-08-31 18:11:48 Commandline: apt install inotify-tools Requested-By: dkb (1000) Install: inotify-tools:amd64 (3.14-7)...
DK Bose's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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How do i get the change by oberving file with inotifywait

I want to get the user name each time when its password is changed in /etc/shadow. Here is my script: while inotifywait -e attrib /etc/shadow; do #edit user ...
Fatima Zohra's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
255 views

Internal Differences Between File deleted from GUI and CLI

I am using inotify system call for watching one of my file for all the events (delete,modify etc). But When I deleted file from GUI, no notification was fired. Whereas when I deleted file from CLI ...
user3797948's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
526 views

Inotifywait apply regex pattern on changes in a file

Requirement: Alert if there is any package installed or removed in the ubuntu server. For this requirement, I'm trying to use inotifywait to continuously monitor dpkg.log, if there are any changes ...
Harsha's user avatar
  • 319
2 votes
1 answer
366 views

help cannot change inotify watch number because file cant be over written

so I'm trying to start using lsyncd for a more up to date backup system. the problem that i have run into is that the directory that i have to backup contains more than 250,000 items and i would like ...
Paul's user avatar
  • 53
1 vote
2 answers
166 views

Temporary file creation is skipped when moving files from monitored folder

I came to this post (Monitor folder and run command if there is a file there?) about monitoring folders and then execute an action on found files. Everything works, but now I want to add a ".tmp&...
J-J's user avatar
  • 23
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Increase inotify watchers without using root priviledges

Is there a way to increase the amount of inotify watchers without having admin privileges? In worst case, with apt-get? I am not admin, but have sudo apt-get install permissions.
Se Bo's user avatar
  • 143
1 vote
1 answer
541 views

Is it possible to see old notifications?

I recently changed some settings in my inotify configuration so that phpstorm would be able to index my files better(I think?). Now my dropbox installation is on the fritz. It can't scan through my ...
Duck Puncher's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
3k views

How to use inotifywait in a non-blocking way and mail the results?

I've tried several times to test my script, but with no success. This is the script: zenity --question --text "my text" if [ $? -eq 1 ]; then zenity --warning --text "my text" else ping -n -...
DJames's user avatar
  • 81
1 vote
1 answer
564 views

Need help with inotifywait loop only processing one file

I have created a shell script that runs an inotifywait command. It watches a folder for new image uploads (That comes from a website) and then uses Imagemagick to resize them, move them to another ...
MadsK's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
727 views

inotify does not track renaming events while watching a single file

I'm using inotifywait to keep track of events on a single file (instead of a directory), as $ inotifywait -m -e open -e close -e move myfile.txt When I open and edit the file, the logs are printed as ...
Kurt's user avatar
  • 61
1 vote
0 answers
36 views

Inotify cannot detect valid path [duplicate]

I m using inotify to get events of file changes in directory. int fd = inotify_init(); for(const fs::path& p : fs::recursive_directory_iterator(filename)){ if(fs::is_directory(p)) { ...
Abhinav Singh's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
451 views

Adding script bash variables to awk and inotify

I want to create a script that will log every access of a directory or any file from that directory during a day, for that, I use inotifywait, but I don't like the output even though i formated it, I ...
C. Cristi's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
718 views

Detecting file changes in directory synced with external cloud storage in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

I am making a software that detect if a new file is uploaded into the Google Cloud Platform's bucket storage from virtual machine instance. A file directory named images was mounted to the bucket ...
kamal samsudin's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
51 views

Alternatives for Monitoring and logging changes anywhere in file system [Ubuntu 14.04] [duplicate]

I would like to monitor and log following changes in file system: Opening and closing of any file by any user. Creation/deletion of file by any user. Files downloaded by any user. After some ...
รยקคгรђשค's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to use inotify to auto refresh a png file when the png file changed

I am trying to visualize some data, and my program outputs a png file. Each time when I modify my program, the output png file changes. So I hope to have an image viewer that can automatically reload ...
LaoMao's user avatar
  • 131
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

inotifywait not detecting links

I have successfully created a watcher for modifications inside a directory, recursively: inotifywait -m -r -e modify --format '%w%f' "$Path" | while read File do echo "File $File is ...
Saeed Neamati's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
433 views

Inotifywait not working on /var/log directory

This sets up the watches, but no log files are created. Is that because var/log is root? #!/bin/bash # Ubuntu_Mate 18.04 LTS # Does NOT work Maybe because directory is root owned ?? # Use ...
fixit7's user avatar
  • 3,117
0 votes
1 answer
769 views

inotifywait command to monitor files deleted

This gives no notification if a file is deleted. It works with created files. delete file or directory deleted within watched directory dir=/home/andy/Downloads/ inotifywait -m "$dir" -...
fixit7's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
1k views

inotify watch limit reached

I receive the following message when I attempt to restart smbd. I understand that inotify has something to do with watching for changes in the filesystem, but I'm not sure where to start in ...
Jesse Dyson's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
859 views

udevadm test command on Ubuntu gives warnings not seen in Manjaro

I created a very simply udev rule /etc/udev/rules.d/99-local.rules that runs a script to create a file in /tmp when a USB key is inserted into my computer. I tested this on a Raspberry Pi 4 running ...
FlexMcMurphy's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
65 views

Why is torbrowser-launcher trying to use inotify for my IME?

torbrowser-launcher readout suddenly included: inotify_add_watch(~/.config/fcitx/dbus) failed: (Permission denied) I checked another machine and it's not there. This has never appeared before. Any ...
YQ002lc2's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
140 views

When specific string in output, do another command

I am currently trying to write a script that monitors my bashrc. I use inotifywait -m /root/.bashrc. I wanted to use this as a start script, so everytime my machine boots, inotifywait is executed and ...
drumcoh's user avatar
  • 35
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Systemd / Ubuntu 19.04 / Can't seem to get a systemd script to launch a terminal

I'm hoping I can get some community help with a script I'm trying to pull together. I'm still learning here so I am prone to stupid mistakes. I'm trying to achieve some automation when I mount a USB ...
Fredfree's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
698 views

Which files ubuntu watches by default

I am working with meteor js, when running meteor command (which builds up the web app), I got this output to the terminal: => It looks like a simple tweak to your system's configuration will make ...
U Rogel's user avatar
  • 101
0 votes
0 answers
79 views

Folder Action for Ubuntu [duplicate]

I have a question concerning Ubuntu folder action , I need a script to notify me when a file is add to a folder or the folder changes , is there any possibility for that. I found some articles ...
nux's user avatar
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