Shell Programming and Scripting

Is there any way to have a script run (either on a web page or a shell script) when new files are put in a folder. E.g we have order response notification XML files uploaded to our server. They are uploaded via sftp. What i wondered if there was some way to monitor the contents and if new files with the correct extesions are uploaded then a script would run to process them.

Or maybe i should just use a daily cron if all else fails?

Code:

 
 
if [ -f "$file_name" ]; then
 
echo "file exists"
 
ls -l "$file_name" | grep "permissions" 2>/dev/null
 
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
 
echo "proper file present"
 
## proceed with the steps needed
 
fi
 
fi

I don't understand how would this script get run? Need it to run automatically when a folder is uploaded, thx

First start off by creating the .toc file toc=table of contents
==============================

ls -tl <your directory> > <your directory>/.toc
===========================

Next create a script that does the following:

ls -tl <your directory> > /tmp/.toc # or what ever dir you want just make
# sure your not overwriting
# the current .toc file.

diff /tmp/.toc <directory with orig>/.toc > /dev/null 2>&1
if [$? -ne 0 ]
then # something changed
mv /tmp/.toc <directory with orig>/.toc
Do the rest of your processing
....
.....
.....
.toc
else
echo "No changes"
fi

Note: I prefernce .toc with the "." so a simple ls command will not pick
it up. You can run this as often as you like.

Good luck

ah ok so maybe run that every 10 mins or so. Thanks