From 9356f11c6077f61e6bda9758f12b3f76b68991e3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joey Hess Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2012 01:25:48 -0400 Subject: surveyed the OSX and BSD options for file monitoring --- doc/design/assistant/inotify.mdwn | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+) (limited to 'doc') diff --git a/doc/design/assistant/inotify.mdwn b/doc/design/assistant/inotify.mdwn index baa420b4e..02c30752d 100644 --- a/doc/design/assistant/inotify.mdwn +++ b/doc/design/assistant/inotify.mdwn @@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ inotify for changes, and automatically annexing new files, etc. There is a `watch` branch in git that adds the command. +[[!toc]] + ## known bugs * A process has a file open for write, another one closes it, @@ -48,6 +50,35 @@ There is a `watch` branch in git that adds the command. * When you `git annex unlock` a file, it will immediately be re-locked. +## beyond Linux + +I'd also like to support OSX and if possible the BSDs. + +* kqueue ([haskell bindings](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/kqueue)) + is supported by FreeBSD, OSX, and other BSDs. + + From what I can find, kqueue does not provide full directory watching + capabilities. To watch a file, you have to have an open file descriptor + to the file. This wouldn't scale. + + Gamin does the best it can with just kqueue, supplimented by polling. + The source file `server/gam_kqueue.c` makes for interesting reading. + Using gamin to do the heavy lifting is one option. + ([haskell bindings](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/hlibfam) for FAM; + gamin shares the API) + +* hfsevents ([haskell bindings](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/hfsevents)) + is OSX specific. + + Originally it was only directory level, and you were only told a + directory had changed and not which file. Based on the haskell + binding's code, from OSX 10.7.0, file level events were added. + + This will be harder for me to develop for, since I don't have access to + OSX machines.. + +* Windows has a Win32 ReadDirectoryChangesW, and perhaps other things. + ## todo - Support OSes other than Linux; it only uses inotify currently. -- cgit v1.2.3