NAME

Linux::Inotify2 - scalable directory/file change notification

SYNOPSIS

 use Linux::Inotify2;

 # create a new object
 my $inotify = new Linux::Inotify2
    or die "Unable to create new inotify object: $!";
 
 # for Event:
 Event->io (fd =>$inotify->fileno, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $inotify->poll });
 # for Glib:
 add_watch Glib::IO $inotify->fileno, in => sub { $inotify->poll };
 # manually:
 1 while $inotify->poll;

 # add watchers
 $inotify->watch ("/etc/passwd", IN_ACCESS, sub {
    my $e = shift;
    my $name = $e->fullname;
    print "$name was accessed\n" if $e->IN_ACCESS;
    print "$name is no longer mounted\n" if $e->IN_UNMOUNT;
    print "$name is gone\n" if $e->IN_IGNORED;
    print "events for $name have been lost\n" if $e->IN_Q_OVERFLOW;
 
    # cancel this watcheR: remove no further events
    $e->w->cancel;
 });

DESCRIPTION

The Linux::Inotify2 Class

This module implements an interface to the Linux 2.6.13 and later Inotify file/directory change notification sytem.

It has a number of advantages over the Linux::Inotify module:

   - it is portable (Linux::Inotify only works on x86)
   - the equivalent of fullname works correctly
   - it is better documented
   - it has callback-style interface, which is better suited for
     integration.

my $inotify = new Linux::Inotify2

Create a new notify object and return it. A notify object is kind of a container that stores watches on filesystem names and is responsible for handling event data.

On error, undef is returned and $! will be set accordingly. The followign errors are documented:

 ENFILE   The system limit on the total number of file descriptors has been reached.
 EMFILE   The user limit on the total number of inotify instances has been reached.
 ENOMEM   Insufficient kernel memory is available.

Example:

   my $inotify = new Linux::Inotify2
      or die "Unable to create new inotify object: $!";

$watch = $inotify->watch ($name, $mask, $cb)

Add a new watcher to the given notifier. The watcher will create events on the pathname $name as given in $mask, which can be any of the following constants (all exported by default) ORed together.

"file" refers to any filesystem object in the watch'ed object (always a directory), that is files, directories, symlinks, device nodes etc., while "object" refers to the object the watch has been set on itself:

 IN_ACCESS            object was accessed
 IN_MODIFY            object was modified
 IN_ATTRIB            object metadata changed
 IN_CLOSE_WRITE       writable fd to file / to object was closed
 IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE     readonly fd to file / to object closed
 IN_OPEN              object was opened
 IN_MOVED_FROM        file was moved from this object (directory)
 IN_MOVED_TO          file was moved to this object (directory)
 IN_CREATE            file was created in this object (directory)
 IN_DELETE            file was deleted from this object (directory)
 IN_DELETE_SELF       object itself was deleted
 IN_ALL_EVENTS        all of the above events

 IN_ONESHOT           only send event once

 IN_CLOSE             same as IN_CLOSE_WRITE | IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE
 IN_MOVE              same as IN_MOVED_FROM | IN_MOVED_TO

$cb is a perl code reference that is called for each event. It receives a Linux::Inotify2::Event object.

The returned $watch object is of class Linux::Inotify2::Watch.

On error, undef is returned and $! will be set accordingly. The following errors are documented:

 EBADF    The given file descriptor is not valid.
 EINVAL   The given event mask contains no legal events.
 ENOMEM   Insufficient kernel memory was available.
 ENOSPC   The user limit on the total number of inotify watches was reached or the kernel failed to allocate a needed resource.
 EACCESS  Read access to the given file is not permitted.

Example, show when /etc/passwd gets accessed and/or modified once:

   $inotify->watch ("/etc/passwd", IN_ACCESS | IN_MODIFY, sub {
      my $e = shift;
      print "$e->{w}{name} was accessed\n" if $e->IN_ACCESS;
      print "$e->{w}{name} was modified\n" if $e->IN_MODIFY;
      print "$e->{w}{name} is no longer mounted\n" if $e->IN_UNMOUNT;
      print "events for $e->{w}{name} have been lost\n" if $e->IN_Q_OVERFLOW;

      $e->w->cancel;
   });

$inotify->fileno

Returns the fileno for this notify object. You are responsible for calling the poll method when this fileno becomes ready for reading.

$count = $inotify->poll

Reads events from the kernel and handles them. If the notify fileno is blocking (the default), then this method waits for at least one event (and thus returns true unless an error occurs). Otherwise it returns immediately when no pending events could be read.

Returns the count of events that have been handled.

The Linux::Inotify2::Event Class

Objects of this class are handed as first argument to the watch callback. It has the following members and methods:

$event->w

$event->{w}

The watcher object for this event.

$event->name

$event->{name}

The path of the filesystem object, relative to the watch name.

$watch->fullname

Returns the "full" name of the relevant object, i.e. including the name component of the watcher.

$event->mask

$event->{mask}

The received event mask. In addition the the events described for $inotify-watch>, the following flags (exported by default) can be set:

 IN_ISDIR             event object is a directory

 IN_Q_OVERFLOW        event queue overflowed

 # when the following flags are set, then watchers are canceled automatically
 IN_UNMOUNT           filesystem for watch'ed object was unmounted
 IN_IGNORED           file was ignored/is gone (no more events are delivered)

$event->IN_xxx

Returns a boolean that returns true if the event mask matches the event. All of the IN_xxx constants can be used as methods.

$event->cookie

$event->{cookie}

The event cookie, can be used to synchronize two related events.

The Linux::Inotify2::Watch Class

Watch objects are created by calling the watch method of a notifier.

It has the following members and methods:

$watch->name

$watch->{name}

The name as specified in the watch call. For the object itself, this is the empty string. For directory watches, this is the name of the entry without leading path elements.

$watch->mask

$watch->{mask}

The mask as specified in the watch call.

$watch->cb ([new callback])

$watch->{cb}

The callback as specified in the watch call. Can optionally be changed.

$watch->cancel

Cancels/removes this watch. Future events, even if already queued queued, will not be handled and resources will be freed.

SEE ALSO

Linux::Inotify.

AUTHOR

 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
 http://home.schmorp.de/