I want to monitor a directory on my server for additions (or file update), and when something is added, run a php script.
I saw that there is watch, but I'm not sure exactly how to use it.
I know watch -d ls -l will track changes in the file listing, but then how do I pipe the changed file to a php script? Also, how do I watch for a file that is not new, but updated?
Can I run this alongside a config file (what directories, etc) for easy setup to end users?
You can use inotifywait (from inotify-tools) in a bash script.
while read file; do
php some_script.php "$file"
done < inotifywait -e create,delete,move,modify -m . --format "%w%f" $dir
%w%f will give you the file path. If you also need the event add %e. For more format options and event names, see the manpage.
Another possibility would be incron, but that requires a system daemon.
Every time I have used watch, it seems to consume the current console/tty. Probably not the best tool for piping into a php script.
One approach I would take is to have a php script do the directory listing, store in a DB like SQLite, etc. then compare the differences, and since it is a php script, it can pass the info off to other php scripts or have the rest of the script incorporated. You can have cron run your php script.
