SWNotify

Watch for file system events in directories in Swift on Linux.

Supported Platforms

• Any version of Linux that can run Swift

What's Not Supported

• Apple platforms — this package won't work on Apple platforms due to its use of the inotify API. If developing for macOS, please use the FSEvents API in CoreFoundation instead.

Requirements

• Swift 5 or newer
• A C compiler (you probably have one if you're writing Swift)

Installation

Add the following to your Package.swift:

dependencies: [
    .package(url: "https://github.com/CominAtYou/SWNotify", from: "1.0.0")
]

Usage

First, set up notifiers for the direcrories you want:

// Monitor all supported events at /some/path
try Notifier.default.addNotifier(for: "/some/path", events: [.create, .rename, .delete, .moveFrom, .moveTo])

// Monitor for file creation events at ProcessWorkingDirectory/some/other/path
try Notifier.default.addNotifier(for: "some/other/path", events: [.create])

Please note that any directory you specify must actually exist at the time of program execution, otherwise NotifierError.noSuchDirectory will be thrown by the addNotifer call.

Next, register callbacks to be called for specific events. You can register multiple callbacks for each event.

// Called whenever a file is created in a watched directory
Notifier.default.addOnFileCreateCallback { path in
    print("File created: \(path)") // /some/path/somefile.txt
}

// Called whenever a file in a watched directory is renamed
Notifier.default.addOnFileRenameCallback { oldPath, newPath in
    print("File renamed: \(oldPath) -> \(newPath)")
}

// Called whenever a file in a watched directory is deleted (i.e., rm or unlink(2))
// Note that this is not called when a file is moved by a user to their desktop environment's trash bin.
// Instead, onFileMoveFrom will be called.
Notifier.default.addOnFileDeleteCallback { path in
    print("File deleted: \(path)")
}

// Called whenever a file is moved out of a watched directory
Notifier.default.addOnFileMoveFromCallback { path in
    print("File moved from directory: \(path)")
}

// Called whenever a file is moved into a watched directory
Notifier.default.addOnFileMoveToCallback { path in
    print("File moved in to directory: \(path)")
}

You can stop a callback from being called by deregistering it. Callbacks can be deregistered by passing the UUID returned by an add[some]Callback(_:) call to Notifier.default.removeCallback(forCallbackId:).

let callbackId = Notifier.default.addOnFileDeleteCallback { path in
    // ...
}

Notifier.default.removeCallback(forCallbackId: callbackId); // Removes the callback that was just registered.

Configuration

• Notifier.default.includeAbsolutePathsInEvents
  • Type: Bool
  • Default: false
  • Description: Specify whether or not callbacks should include the absolute path of the target file(s) when an event occurs. If false, callbacks will only include the name of the file.

Building

Clone the repository, cd into it, and run swift build.

Roadmap

• Ability to add callbacks for only certain directories
• Support for macOS via the FSEvents API