Monitor file system changes on Linux using inotifywait from inotify-tools and react to events in a shell script
domain: man7.org · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Install inotify-tools if not present: sudo apt-get install inotify-tools (Debian/Ubuntu) or equivalent.
Wait for a single event then exit: inotifywait -e close_write /path/to/file
Run in daemon mode watching a directory for multiple events: inotifywait -m -r -e create,modify,delete /path/to/dir
Parse the output in a shell loop: inotifywait -m -r -e create /path/to/dir | while read -r dir event file; do echo "$event $dir$file"; done
Use --format to control output: inotifywait -m -e create --format '%w%f' /path/to/dir
Known gotchas
inotifywait -r on a large directory tree may exceed the system's inotify watch limit; check /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches and raise it with sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches=<VALUE> if needed.
inotify watches are per-inode, not per-path; watching a directory does not automatically watch newly created subdirectories unless -r is used to re-establish recursive watches.
inotify events do not indicate which process caused the change; use auditd or fanotify-based tools if you need process attribution.
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