Ubuntu Manpage: inotifywatch - gather filesystem access statistics using inotify

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 relative 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. 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'.

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 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.

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/

CAVEATS

       When  using  inotifywatch, the filename that is outputted is not guaranteed to be up to date after a move
       because it is the inode that is being monitored.  Additionally,  none  of  the  observed  operations  are
       guaranteed  to  have  been performed on the filename inotifywatch was instructed to monitor in cases when
       the file is known by several names in the filesystem.

BUGS

       There are race conditions in the recursive directory watching code which can cause events to be missed if
       they occur in a directory immediately 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/