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.TH inotifywatch 1 "March 14, 2010" "inotifywatch 3.14"
.SH NAME
inotifywatch \- gather filesystem access statistics using inotify
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B inotifywatch
.RB [ \-hvzrqf ]
.RB [ \-e
<event> ]
.RB [ \-t
<seconds> ]
.RB [ \-a
<event> ]
.RB [ \-d
<event> ]
<file> [ ... ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B inotifywatch
listens for filesystem events using Linux's
.BR inotify(7)
interface, then outputs a summary count of the events received on each file or
directory.
.SH OUTPUT
.B inotifywatch
will output a table on standard out with one column for each type of event and
one row for each watched file or directory. The table will show the amount of
times each event occurred for each watched file or directory. Output can be
sorted by a particular event using the
.B \-a
or
.B \-d
options.
Some diagnostic information will be output on standard error.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-h, \-\-help
Output some helpful usage information.
.TP
.B \-v, \-\-verbose
Output some extra information on standard error during execution.
.TP
.B @<file>
When watching a directory tree recursively, exclude the specified file from
being watched. The file must be specified with a relative or absolute path
according to whether a relative or absolute path is given for watched
directories. If a specific path is explicitly both included and excluded, it
will always be watched.
.B Note:
If you need to watch a directory or file whose name starts with @, give the
absolute path.
.TP
.B \-\-fromfile <file>
Read filenames to watch or exclude from a file, one filename per line. If
filenames begin with @ they are excluded as described above. If <file> is `-',
filenames are read from standard input. Use this option if you need to watch
too many files to pass in as command line arguments.
.TP
.B \-z, \-\-zero
Output table rows and columns even if all elements are zero. By default, rows
and columns are only output if they contain non-zero elements. Using this
option when watching for every event on a lot of files can result in a
.I lot
of output!
.TP
.B \-\-exclude <pattern>
Do not process any events whose filename matches the specified POSIX extended
regular expression, case sensitive.
.TP
.B \-\-excludei <pattern>
Do not process any events whose filename matches the specified POSIX extended
regular expression, case insensitive.
.TP
.B \-r, \-\-recursive
Watch all subdirectories of any directories passed as arguments. Watches
will be set up recursively to an unlimited depth. Symbolic links are not
traversed. If new directories are created within watched directories they
will automatically be watched.
.B Warning:
If you use this option while watching the root directory
of a large tree, it may take quite a while until all inotify watches are
established, and events will not be received in this time. Also, since one
inotify watch will be established per subdirectory, it is possible that the
maximum amount of inotify watches per user will be reached. The default
maximum is 8192; it can be increased by writing to
.BR /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches .
.TP
.B \-t <seconds>, \-\-timeout <seconds>
Listen only for the specified amount of seconds. If not specified, inotifywatch
will gather statistics until receiving an interrupt signal by (for example)
pressing CONTROL-C at the console.
.TP
.B \-e <event>, \-\-event <event>
Listen for specific event(s) only. The events which can be listened for are
listed in the
.B EVENTS
section. This option can be specified more than once. If omitted, all events
are listened for.
.TP
.B \-a <event>, \-\-ascending <event>
Sort output ascending by event counts for the specified event. Sortable events
include `total' and all the events listed in the
.B EVENTS
section except `move' and `close' (you must use `moved_to', `moved_from',
`close_write' or `close_nowrite' instead). The default is to sort descending by
`total'.
.TP
.B \-d <event>, \-\-descending <event>
Sort output descending by event counts for the specified event. Sortable events
include `total' and all the events listed in the
.B EVENTS
section except `move' and `close' (you must use `moved_to', `moved_from',
`close_write' or `close_nowrite' instead). The default is to sort descending by
`total'.
.SH "EXIT STATUS"
.TP
.B 0
The program executed successfully.
.TP
.B 1
An error occurred in execution of the program.
.SH EVENTS
The following events are valid for use with the
.B \-e
option:
.TP
.B access
A watched file or a file within a watched directory was read from.
.TP
.B modify
A watched file or a file within a watched directory was written to.
.TP
.B attrib
The metadata of a watched file or a file within a watched directory was
modified. This includes timestamps, file permissions, extended attributes etc.
.TP
.B close_write
A watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, after being
opened in writeable mode. This does not necessarily imply the file was written
to.
.TP
.B close_nowrite
A watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, after being
opened in read-only mode.
.TP
.B close
A watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, regardless of
how it was opened. Note that this is actually implemented simply by listening
for both
.B close_write
and
.B close_nowrite,
hence all close events received will be output as one of these, not
.B CLOSE.
.TP
.B open
A watched file or a file within a watched directory was opened.
.TP
.B moved_to
A file or directory was moved into a watched directory. This event occurs even
if the file is simply moved from and to the same directory.
.TP
.B moved_from
A file or directory was moved from a watched directory. This event occurs even
if the file is simply moved from and to the same directory.
.TP
.B move
A file or directory was moved from or to a watched directory. Note that this is
actually implemented simply by listening for both
.B moved_to
and
.B moved_from,
hence all close events received will be output as one or both of these, not
.B MOVE.
.TP
.B move_self
A watched file or directory was moved. After this event, the file or directory
is no longer being watched.
.TP
.B create
A file or directory was created within a watched directory.
.TP
.B delete
A file or directory within a watched directory was deleted.
.TP
.B delete_self
A watched file or directory was deleted. After this event the file or directory
is no longer being watched. Note that this event can occur even if it is not
explicitly being listened for.
.TP
.B unmount
The filesystem on which a watched file or directory resides was unmounted.
After this event the file or directory is no longer being watched. Note that
this event can occur even if it is not explicitly being listened to.
.SH EXAMPLE
Watching the `~/.beagle' directory for 60 seconds:
.nf
% inotifywatch -v -e access -e modify -t 60 -r ~/.beagle
Establishing watches...
Setting up watch(es) on /home/rohan/.beagle
OK, /home/rohan/.beagle is now being watched.
Total of 302 watches.
Finished establishing watches, now collecting statistics.
Will listen for events for 60 seconds.
total access modify filename
1436 1074 362 /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/PrimaryIndex/
1323 1053 270 /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/SecondaryIndex/
303 116 187 /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/PrimaryIndex/
261 74 187 /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/
206 0 206 /home/rohan/.beagle/Log/
42 0 42 /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/Locks/
18 6 12 /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/
12 0 12 /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/Locks/
3 0 3 /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/54/
3 0 3 /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/bc/
3 0 3 /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/20/
3 0 3 /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/62/
2 2 0 /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/SecondaryIndex/
.fi
.SH BUGS
There are race conditions in the recursive directory watching code
which can cause events to be missed if they occur in a directory immediately
after that directory is created. This is probably not fixable.
It is assumed the inotify event queue will never overflow.
.SH AUTHORS
inotifywatch is written by Rohan McGovern <rohan@mcgovern.id.au>.
inotifywatch is part of inotify-tools. The inotify-tools website is located at:
.I http://inotify-tools.sourceforge.net/
.SH "SEE ALSO"
inotifywait(1), inotify(7)
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