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run_on_modified

This is simple utility that takes three arguments: what file to watch, what command to run when the file is modified, and how often to check the file for changes. A typical use might be:

run_on_modified ~/Documents/table.txt ~/Documents/myscript.sh 1000

which would monitor the file table.txt in your Documents folder for changes once per second, and if it changes run the script myscript.sh in your Documents folder. The script can be in any language, as long as it is marked executable, or you could run an existing command in your PATH you didn't write, like ls, or a quoted shell command, like 'echo modified'.

run_on_modified watches changes to the filesystem rooted in the directory containing the target file. To do so, it uses a capability added to the C++ Standard Template Library in C++17, std::filesystem.

Background

This is a quick hack to the code from this Solarian Programmer article. The article demonstrated the addition of filesystem features to C++ in C++17.

The modifications here are:

  • Running the noexcept version of std::filesystem::last_write_time() since otherwise irregular files (like iCloud file stubs or some symlinks) caused uncaught exceptions and an early exit on macOS.
  • Special treatment for modified files, since that is the main application purpose. Other filesystem events remain in the main switch statement for debugging, but could be deleted.
  • The code uses the contains method added to std::unordered_map in C++201,2, as suggested by the Solarian Programmer.
  • Disambiguated path_to_watch in the lambda action function from path_to_watch in the main class constructor. Renamed the lambda version file_in_question

Requirements

A recent version of clang (2019 or newer) to use the Makefile as-is. More generally, a compiler supporting C++17 and draft C++20. To use gcc, edit the Makefile's CXX and possibly CXXFLAGS lines.

Building

Just type make

Installing

Put the binary run_on_modified in your PATH, or run it via /path/to/run_on_modified

Usage

run_on_modified takes 3 required arguments in a required order:

run_on_modified <target_path> <script_path> <poll_interval_ms>

<target_path>:
Path to the file you want to modify. There must be a path component, even if it is `./some_file` in the current directory.

<script_path>:
Path to the command you want to run when the target is modified. If the command is in your `PATH` you don't need to specify the full path, otherwise you do.

<poll_interval_ms>:
How long to wait between checking the status of the target's parent directory, in milliseconds.

Example

git clone https://github.com/bdsinger/run_on_modified.git
cd run_on_modified
chmod +x ./example_to_run.sh
make
./run_on_modified ./example_to_modify.txt ./example_to_run.sh 1000

In another window:

touch ./example_to_modify.txt

In the first window you should see the output:

Monitoring the directory: .
File modified: "example_to_modify.txt"
Running: ./example_to_run.sh
target modified

Suggested improvements

The code could be made much more efficient.

  • It keeps track of the modification times of all files in a directory, which could be lots of files when you only care about one file!
  • Any changes to the file hierarchy are detected and reported, including deletion and creation.
  • Eliminate main thread polling, or polling altogether.

Warning: Insecure and untested

  • The code is insecure. The command that runs is executed via system() without inspection. This could result in data loss.
  • The input arguments are not validated. The code has not been well exercised. Though its scope is limited, and runs with your permissions, there could be serious bugs. Use at your own risk.

1 clang++ -std=c++2a ... as of June 2021 (clang 12.0.0)
2 The article provides a FileWatcher::contains method if you'd rather not use any C++20-only features.