watch for filesystem

Signature

> watch {flags} (path) (closure)

Flags

• --debounce-ms, -d {int}: Debounce changes for this many milliseconds (default: 100). Adjust if you find that single writes are reported as multiple events (deprecated)
• --debounce {duration}: Debounce changes for this duration (default: 100ms). Adjust if you find that single writes are reported as multiple events
• --glob, -g {string}: Only report changes for files that match this glob pattern (default: all files)
• --recursive, -r {bool}: Watch all directories under <path> recursively. Will be ignored if <path> is a file (default: true)
• --quiet, -q: Hide the initial status message (default: false)
• --verbose, -v: Operate in verbose mode (default: false)

Parameters

• path: The path to watch. Can be a file or directory.
• closure: Some Nu code to run whenever a file changes. The closure will be passed operation, path, and new_path (for renames only) arguments in that order.

Input/output types:

Examples

Run cargo test whenever a Rust file changes

> watch . --glob=**/*.rs {|| cargo test }

Watch all changes in the current directory

> watch . { |op, path, new_path| $"($op) ($path) ($new_path)"}

watch (when run without a closure) can also emit a stream of events it detects.

> watch /foo/bar
    | where operation == Create
    | first 5
    | each {|e| $"New file!: ($e.path)" }
    | to text
    | save --append changes_in_bar.log

Print file changes with a debounce time of 5 minutes

> watch /foo/bar --debounce 5min { |op, path| $"Registered ($op) on ($path)" | print }

Note: if you are looking to run a command every N units of time, this can be accomplished with a loop and sleep

> loop { command; sleep duration }

Notes

When run without a closure, watch returns a stream of events instead.