NAME

       entr — run arbitrary commands when files change

SYNOPSIS

       entr [-r] utility [arguments ...]
       entr +fifo

DESCRIPTION

       entr  has  two modes of operation; the first use reads a list of files provided on STDIN and executes the
       supplied utility if any of them change.  entr waits for the child process to finish before responding  to
       subsequent  file  system  events.  A TTY is opened before entering the watch loop in order to support the
       invocation of interactive utilities.

       -r modifies the exec mode by launching the utility at startup and reloading it if one of the source files
       change. This features requires the application to exit if it receives SIGTERM.  entr always waits for the
       utility to exit to ensure that resources such as sockets have been closed.

       The second mode also reads a list of filenames provided on STDIN and is enabled by specifying '+' and the
       name of a fifo. In this mode entr enables more sophisticated scripting by writing filenames  to  a  named
       pipe when they are modified.

ENVIRONMENT

       If  PAGER  is  undefined,  entr  will  assign  /bin/cat to prevent interactive utilities from waiting for
       keyboard input if output does not fit on the screen.

EXIT STATUS

       The entr utility does not normally return, but it will exit with a value of 0 if  the  signal  SIGINT  or
       SIGTERM was received. An exit status of 1 indicates that no regular files were provided as input.

EXAMPLES

       Rebuild project when source files change

             $ find src | entr make

       Clear the screen and run tests

             $ ls *.py | entr sh -c 'clear; ./test.py'

       Launch and auto-reload a node.js server

             $ ls *.js | entr -r node index.js

       Convert individual Markdown files to HTML if they're modified

             $ ls *.md | entr +notify &
             $ while read F; do
             > markdown2html $F
             > done < notify

CAVEATS

       Only regular files are monitored, directories and special files are ignored.

Debian                                          December 30, 2013                                        ENTR(1)