Some diagnostic information will be output on standard error.

-h, --help

Output some helpful usage information.

-v, --verbose

Output some extra information on standard error during execution.

-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!

-r, --recursive

Watch all subdirectories of any directories passed as arguments. Watches will be set up recursively to an unlimited depth. Symbolic 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 subdirectory, 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 specified 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'.

0

The program executed successfully.

1

An error occurred in execution of the program.

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 implemented 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.

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.

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/

It is assumed the inotify event queue will never overflow.

inotifywatch is part of inotify-tools. The inotify-tools website is located at: