Ruby gem to watch file

ruby-talk
1

is there any gem that will watch for a file and if the file exists, or
changes, can trigger process or event. i am looking for something on
the windows platform only.
appreciate any help.

2

Take a look at directory_watcher. It works on all platforms.

http://codeforpeople.rubyforge.org/directory_watcher/

Blessings,
TwP

···

On Sep 20, 2008, at 7:17 PM, Junkone wrote:

is there any gem that will watch for a file and if the file exists, or
changes, can trigger process or event. i am looking for something on
the windows platform only.
appreciate any help.

3

i tried as you suggested and have a few q.
i am trying to run a ruby prog to execute if there is any new file in
a directory. i started out with the examples but am a little confused
on how to useit.
this prog seems to be looking at the current directory where it is
running and not where i had specificed it to watch with dw.glob.

appreciate any help.

seede

require 'directory_watcher'
   dw = DirectoryWatcher.new '.', :pre_load => true
   dw.glob = "c:\\temp\\scans\\" # is the directory i want to watch.
   dw.add_observer {|*args| args.each {|event| puts event}}
   dw.start
   gets
   dw.stop

···

On Sep 20, 11:15 pm, Tim Pease <tim.pe...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sep 20, 2008, at 7:17 PM, Junkone wrote:

> is there any gem that will watch for a file and if the file exists, or
> changes, can trigger process or event. i am looking for something on
> the windows platform only.
> appreciate any help.

Take a look at directory_watcher. It works on all platforms.

http://codeforpeople.rubyforge.org/directory_watcher/

Blessings,
TwP

4

Junkone wrote:

Blessings,
TwP

i tried as you suggested and have a few q.
i am trying to run a ruby prog to execute if there is any new file in
a directory. i started out with the examples but am a little confused
on how to useit.
this prog seems to be looking at the current directory where it is
running and not where i had specificed it to watch with dw.glob.

appreciate any help.

seede

(...)
Hm, I can't get it to work either (on WinXP).

require 'directory_watcher'
   dw = DirectoryWatcher.new 'D:/temp/'
   dw.interval=5
   dw.add_observer {|*args| args.each {|event| puts event}}
   dw.start
   gets
   dw.stop

It does display the files ("added 'D:/temp/Pink_Pajamas.amv'" etc), but
after that you can delete, add and edit files without directory_watcher
noticing anything. Is it broken on windows or am I doing something
wrong?

Regards,

Siep

···

On Sep 20, 11:15�pm, Tim Pease <tim.pe...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

5

The whole program is blocking on the "gets".

On the windows platform, all threads block when reading from standard input. So the "gets" is causing all threads to wait including the directory watcher thread.

Try replacing the "gets" with a "sleep 30" or some other time interval.

Blessings,
TwP

···

On Sep 22, 2008, at 4:36 PM, Siep Korteling wrote:

Junkone wrote:

On Sep 20, 11:15�pm, Tim Pease <tim.pe...@gmail.com> wrote:

Blessings,
TwP

i tried as you suggested and have a few q.
i am trying to run a ruby prog to execute if there is any new file in
a directory. i started out with the examples but am a little confused
on how to useit.
this prog seems to be looking at the current directory where it is
running and not where i had specificed it to watch with dw.glob.

appreciate any help.

seede

(...)
Hm, I can't get it to work either (on WinXP).

require 'directory_watcher'
  dw = DirectoryWatcher.new 'D:/temp/'
  dw.interval=5
  dw.add_observer {|*args| args.each {|event| puts event}}
  dw.start
  gets
  dw.stop

It does display the files ("added 'D:/temp/Pink_Pajamas.amv'" etc), but
after that you can delete, add and edit files without directory_watcher
noticing anything. Is it broken on windows or am I doing something
wrong?