watchr

watchr

Watchr provides a normalised API the file watching APIs of different node versions, nested/recursive file and directory watching, and accurate detailed events for file/directory creations, updates, and deletions.

Install

npm

• Install: npm install --save watchr
• Require: require('watchr')

Editions

This package is published with the following editions:

• watchr aliases watchr/source/index.js
• watchr/source/index.js is esnext source code with require for modules

Environments older than Node.js v8 may need Babel's Polyfill or something similar.

TypeScript

This project provides its type information via inline JSDoc Comments. To make use of this in TypeScript, set your maxNodeModuleJsDepth compiler option to 5 or thereabouts. You can accomlish this via your tsconfig.json file like so:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "maxNodeModuleJsDepth": 5
  }
}

Usage

API Documentation

There are two concepts in watchr, they are:

• Watcher - this wraps the native file system watching, makes it reliable, and supports deep watching
• Stalker - this wraps the watcher, such that for any given path, there can be many stalkers, but only one watcher

The simplest usage is:

// Import the watching library
var watchr = require('watchr')

// Define our watching parameters
var path = process.cwd()
function listener (changeType, fullPath, currentStat, previousStat) {
	switch ( changeType ) {
		case 'update':
			console.log('the file', fullPath, 'was updated', currentStat, previousStat)
			break
		case 'create':
			console.log('the file', fullPath, 'was created', currentStat)
			break
		case 'delete':
			console.log('the file', fullPath, 'was deleted', previousStat)
			break
	}
}
function next (err) {
	if ( err )  return console.log('watch failed on', path, 'with error', err)
	console.log('watch successful on', path)
}

// Watch the path with the change listener and completion callback
var stalker = watchr.open(path, listener, next)

// Close the stalker of the watcher
stalker.close()

More advanced usage is:

// Create the stalker for the path
var stalker = watchr.create(path)

// Listen to the events for the stalker/watcher
stalker.on('change', listener)
stalker.on('log', console.log)
stalker.once('close', function (reason) {
	console.log('closed', path, 'because', reason)
	stalker.removeAllListeners()  // as it is closed, no need for our change or log listeners any more
})

// Set the default configuration for the stalker/watcher
stalker.setConfig({
	stat: null,
	interval: 5007,
	persistent: true,
	catchupDelay: 2000,
	preferredMethods: ['watch', 'watchFile'],
	followLinks: true,
	ignorePaths: false,
	ignoreHiddenFiles: false,
	ignoreCommonPatterns: true,
	ignoreCustomPatterns: null
})

// Start watching
stalker.watch(next)

// Stop watching
stalker.close()

History

Discover the release history by heading on over to the HISTORY.md file.

Contribute

Discover how you can contribute by heading on over to the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

Backers

Maintainers

These amazing people are maintaining this project:

• Benjamin Lupton — view contributions

Sponsors

No sponsors yet! Will you be the first?

Contributors

These amazing people have contributed code to this project:

• Benjamin Lupton — view contributions
• Aaron O'Mullan — view contributions
• Adam Sanderson — view contributions
• Casey Foster — view contributions
• Fredrik Norén — view contributions
• Robson Roberto Souza Peixoto — view contributions
• Stuart Knightley — view contributions
• David Byrd
• Josh Levine — view contributions
• dependabot[bot] — view contributions
• dependabot-preview[bot] — view contributions

Discover how you can contribute by heading on over to the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

License

Unless stated otherwise all works are:

• Copyright © 2012+ Bevry Pty Ltd
• Copyright © 2011 Benjamin Lupton

and licensed under:

• MIT License