gvfs-monitor-dir

gvfs-monitor-dir [OPTION...] DIRECTORY
gvfs-monitor-dir --help
gvfs-monitor-dir --version

DIRECTORY
    The path to the directory that gvfs-monitor-dir should monitor for changes. This can be a local path or a GVFS URI (e.g., sftp://user@host/path).

--help
    Displays a help message with usage information and exits.

--version
    Shows the version information for the gvfs-monitor-dir command and exits.

The gvfs-monitor-dir command is a utility from the GVFS (GNOME Virtual File System) suite, designed to observe and report changes within a specified directory. It primarily acts as a diagnostic and debugging tool, printing notifications to standard output whenever events like file creation, deletion, modification, or attribute changes occur within the monitored directory or its immediate contents. This is especially useful for understanding how applications interact with directories exposed through GVFS backends, which can include remote locations like SFTP, SMB shares, or FTP servers. Unlike lower-level file system monitoring tools, gvfs-monitor-dir operates at the GVFS abstraction layer, making it suitable for debugging issues related to GVFS operations rather than raw kernel-level file system events.

• Primarily intended as a debugging and informational tool for developers and advanced users working with GVFS. It is not typically used for automated scripting due to its raw, event-stream output.
• The events reported by gvfs-monitor-dir are specific to the GVFS abstraction layer and may not perfectly reflect all underlying kernel-level file system events (e.g., via inotify).
• Its functionality depends on the correct operation of the GVFS daemon (gvfsd) and relevant GVFS backends.
• It does not provide options for filtering specific event types or for monitoring subdirectories recursively beyond the immediate contents of the specified directory.

The command outputs events to standard output in a human-readable, but programmatic-unfriendly, format. Each line typically describes an event, such as a file being created, deleted, or changed, often including the path to the affected item. This output is primarily for interactive debugging and observation.

A typical use case involves running gvfs-monitor-dir on a directory that is experiencing issues, perhaps on a network share mounted via GVFS, and then performing actions in that directory to see what events are reported, helping diagnose file operation problems.

gvfs-monitor-dir is part of the GVFS project, which was introduced with GNOME 2.22 in March 2008. GVFS was developed to replace the older GnomeVFS library, aiming to provide a more robust and flexible virtual file system layer for GNOME applications, leveraging GIO (Gnome Input/Output) as its foundation. The gvfs-monitor-dir utility emerged as a specific tool within this framework to aid in debugging and understanding directory monitoring behavior within the GVFS environment. Its development and usage are closely tied to the evolution and maintenance of the GVFS system itself.

gvfs(7), gvfsd(1), gio-monitor(1), inotifywait(1)