inotifywait

Waits for changes to one or more files.

Watch a specific file for events, exiting after the first one

$ inotifywait [path/to/file]

Continuously watch a specific file for events without exiting

$ inotifywait --monitor [path/to/file]

Watch a directory recursively for events

$ inotifywait --monitor --recursive [path/to/directory]

Watch a directory for changes, excluding files, whose names match a regular expression

$ inotifywait --monitor --recursive --exclude "[regular_expression]" [path/to/directory]

Watch a file for changes, exiting when no event occurs for 30 seconds

$ inotifywait --monitor --timeout [30] [path/to/file]

Only watch a file for file modification events

$ inotifywait --event [modify] [path/to/file]

Watch a file printing only events, and no status messages

$ inotifywait --quiet [path/to/file]

Run a command when a file is accessed

$ inotifywait --event [access] [path/to/file] && [command]