inotifywatch(1) 					      General Commands Manual						   inotifywatch(1)

NAME

       inotifywatch - gather filesystem access statistics using inotify

SYNOPSIS

       inotifywatch [-hvzrqf] [-e <event> ] [-t <seconds> ] [-a <event> ] [-d <event> ] <file> [ ... ]

DESCRIPTION

       inotifywatch  listens for filesystem events using Linux's inotify(7) interface, then outputs a summary count of the events received on each
       file or directory.

OUTPUT

       inotifywatch will output a table on standard out with one column for each type of event and one row for each  watched  file  or	directory.
       The table will show the amount of times each event occurred for each watched file or directory.	Output can be sorted by a particular event
       using the -a or -d options.

       Some diagnostic information will be output on standard error.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
	      Output some helpful usage information.

       -v, --verbose
	      Output some extra information on standard error during execution.

       @<file>
	      When watching a directory tree recursively, exclude the specified file from being watched.  The file must be specified with a  rela-
	      tive  or	absolute  path	according  to whether a relative or absolute path is given for watched directories.  If a specific path is
	      explicitly both included and excluded, it will always be watched.

	      Note: If you need to watch a directory or file whose name starts with @, give the absolute path.

       --fromfile <file>
	      Read filenames to watch or exclude from a file, one filename per line.  If filenames begin with @ they  are  excluded  as  described
	      above.  If <file> is `-', filenames are read from standard input.  Use this option if you need to watch too many files to pass in as
	      command line arguments.

       -z, --zero
	      Output table rows and columns even if all elements are zero.  By default, rows and columns are only output if they contain  non-zero
	      elements.  Using this option when watching for every event on a lot of files can result in a lot of output!

       --exclude <pattern>
	      Do not process any events whose filename matches the specified POSIX extended regular expression, case sensitive.

       --excludei <pattern>
	      Do not process any events whose filename matches the specified POSIX extended regular expression, case insensitive.

       -r, --recursive
	      Watch  all  subdirectories  of any directories passed as arguments.  Watches will be set up recursively to an unlimited depth.  Sym-
	      bolic links are not traversed.  If new directories are created within watched directories they will automatically be watched.

	      Warning: If you use this option while watching the root directory of a large tree, it may take  quite  a	while  until  all  inotify
	      watches are established, and events will not be received in this time.  Also, since one inotify watch will be established per subdi-
	      rectory, it is possible that the maximum amount of inotify watches per user will be reached.  The default maximum is 8192; it can be
	      increased by writing to /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches.

       -t <seconds>, --timeout <seconds>
	      Listen only for the specified amount of seconds.	If not specified, inotifywatch will gather statistics until receiving an interrupt
	      signal by (for example) pressing CONTROL-C at the console.

       -e <event>, --event <event>
	      Listen for specific event(s) only.  The events which can be listened for are listed in the EVENTS section.  This option can be spec-
	      ified more than once.  If omitted, all events are listened for.

       -a <event>, --ascending <event>
	      Sort  output  ascending  by  event counts for the specified event.  Sortable events include `total' and all the events listed in the
	      EVENTS section except `move' and `close' (you must use `moved_to', `moved_from', `close_write'  or  `close_nowrite'  instead).   The
	      default is to sort descending by `total'.

       -d <event>, --descending <event>
	      Sort  output  descending	by event counts for the specified event.  Sortable events include `total' and all the events listed in the
	      EVENTS section except `move' and `close' (you must use `moved_to', `moved_from', `close_write'  or  `close_nowrite'  instead).   The
	      default is to sort descending by `total'.

EXIT STATUS

       0      The program executed successfully.

       1      An error occurred in execution of the program.

EVENTS

       The following events are valid for use with the -e option:

       access A watched file or a file within a watched directory was read from.

       modify A watched file or a file within a watched directory was written to.

       attrib The  metadata  of  a  watched  file  or a file within a watched directory was modified.  This includes timestamps, file permissions,
	      extended attributes etc.

       close_write
	      A watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, after being opened in writeable mode.   This  does  not  necessarily
	      imply the file was written to.

       close_nowrite
	      A watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, after being opened in read-only mode.

       close  A  watched file or a file within a watched directory was closed, regardless of how it was opened.  Note that this is actually imple-
	      mented simply by listening for both close_write and close_nowrite, hence all close events received will be output as one	of  these,
	      not CLOSE.

       open   A watched file or a file within a watched directory was opened.

       moved_to
	      A  file  or  directory  was moved into a watched directory.  This event occurs even if the file is simply moved from and to the same
	      directory.

       moved_from
	      A file or directory was moved from a watched directory.  This event occurs even if the file is simply moved from	and  to  the  same
	      directory.

       move   A  file  or directory was moved from or to a watched directory.  Note that this is actually implemented simply by listening for both
	      moved_to and moved_from, hence all close events received will be output as one or both of these, not MOVE.

       move_self
	      A watched file or directory was moved. After this event, the file or directory is no longer being watched.

       create A file or directory was created within a watched directory.

       delete A file or directory within a watched directory was deleted.

       delete_self
	      A watched file or directory was deleted.	After this event the file or directory is no longer being watched.  Note that  this  event
	      can occur even if it is not explicitly being listened for.

       unmount
	      The  filesystem  on  which  a  watched file or directory resides was unmounted.  After this event the file or directory is no longer
	      being watched.  Note that this event can occur even if it is not explicitly being listened to.

EXAMPLE

       Watching the `~/.beagle' directory for 60 seconds:

       % inotifywatch -v -e access -e modify -t 60 -r ~/.beagle
       Establishing watches...
       Setting up watch(es) on /home/rohan/.beagle
       OK, /home/rohan/.beagle is now being watched.
       Total of 302 watches.
       Finished establishing watches, now collecting statistics.
       Will listen for events for 60 seconds.
       total  access  modify  filename
       1436   1074    362     /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/PrimaryIndex/
       1323   1053    270     /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/SecondaryIndex/
       303    116     187     /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/PrimaryIndex/
       261    74      187     /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/
       206    0       206     /home/rohan/.beagle/Log/
       42     0       42      /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/Locks/
       18     6       12      /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/FileSystemIndex/
       12     0       12      /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/Locks/
       3      0       3       /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/54/
       3      0       3       /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/bc/
       3      0       3       /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/20/
       3      0       3       /home/rohan/.beagle/TextCache/62/
       2      2       0       /home/rohan/.beagle/Indexes/KMailIndex/SecondaryIndex/

BUGS

       There are race conditions in the recursive directory watching code which can cause events to be missed if they occur in a directory immedi-
       ately after that directory is created.  This is probably not fixable.

       It is assumed the inotify event queue will never overflow.

AUTHORS

       inotifywatch is written by Rohan McGovern <rohan@mcgovern.id.au>.

       inotifywatch is part of inotify-tools.  The inotify-tools website is located at: http://inotify-tools.sourceforge.net/

SEE ALSO

       inotifywait(1), inotify(7)

inotifywatch 3.20.1						  August 05, 2019						   inotifywatch(1)