gvfs-monitor-file

gvfs-monitor-file [OPTION...] FILE...

-d, --directory
    Monitors the specified FILE as a directory. When this option is used, events related to the directory itself or its immediate children (depending on other options) will be reported.

--monitor-only
    When monitoring a directory (with -d), this option restricts monitoring to only the directory itself, ignoring changes within its subdirectories or files inside it.

--monitor-dirs
    When monitoring a directory (with -d), this option specifically enables monitoring for changes to subdirectories within the specified directory.

--monitor-files
    When monitoring a directory (with -d), this option specifically enables monitoring for changes to files within the specified directory.

-?, --help
    Shows a summary of available command-line options.

--version
    Displays the version information for the gvfs-monitor-file command.

The gvfs-monitor-file command is a utility from the GVFS (GNOME Virtual File System) suite, designed to observe and report real-time changes to specified files or directories. GVFS provides a high-level abstraction layer for accessing various local and remote file systems, allowing applications to interact with them uniformly.

This command leverages the GFileMonitor API to detect events such as file creation, deletion, modification, moving, and attribute changes. It continuously watches the target and prints messages to standard output whenever an event occurs. This makes it invaluable for debugging applications that rely on GVFS, understanding file system activity in GNOME environments, or for developers needing to track how their files are being accessed or modified through the GVFS layer.

While useful, gvfs-monitor-file operates through the GVFS layer, which introduces some overhead compared to direct kernel interfaces like inotify or fanotify. It may not be suitable for extremely high-performance or low-latency file monitoring applications. Its output can be verbose, especially for directories with frequent changes. It also relies on the GVFS daemon (gvfsd) being active.

The command prints events to standard output in a simple format, typically consisting of the event type followed by the path of the file or directory that changed. Common event types include changed, deleted, moved, and attribute-changed. For example:

changed /home/user/testfile.txt
deleted /home/user/olddir/
moved /home/user/tempfile.txt /home/user/newfile.txt

One of the key strengths of gvfs-monitor-file is its ability to monitor not just local files, but also files accessed via various GVFS backends, such as SMB shares (smb://), SFTP connections (sftp://), or even MTP devices (mtp://). This provides a unified way to observe file system events across different protocols and locations that GVFS supports, abstracting away the underlying complexities.

gvfs-monitor-file emerged as part of the GVFS (GNOME Virtual File System) project, which was introduced to replace the older GConf and HAL components in GNOME desktop environments. Its primary purpose has always been to provide a debugging and introspection tool for GVFS, allowing developers and system administrators to observe how file system events are processed and reported through the GVFS stack. Its development mirrors that of the wider GNOME desktop, evolving with new versions of the GIO library.

inotifywait(1), inotifywatch(1), gvfsd(1), gio(1), strace(1)