inotifywait thekid

inotifywait is a cross-platform file system monitoring tool designed to track changes to files and directories on Windows. Ported from the popular Linux utility inotify-tools, it enables users to detect events such as file creation, modification, deletion, and movement in real time.

Key Features:

• Recursive file watching: Monitor all files and subdirectories within a specified directory.
• Continuous monitoring: Run indefinitely until terminated (e.g., via Ctrl+C) using the -m option.
• Event filtering: Watch specific types of events (create, modify, delete, move) or monitor all changes by default.
• Quiet mode: Suppress event information output using the -q flag.
• Customizable output format: Define output templates using placeholders like %e (event name), %f (file name), and %w (path).
• Regular expression filters: Exclude or include events based on filename patterns using --exclude, --excludei, --include, and --includei.

Audience & Benefit: Ideal for system administrators, developers, and anyone requiring real-time file system monitoring. inotifywait enables users to automate workflows by reacting to file changes programmatically, enhancing efficiency and reducing manual intervention.

Installable via winget, the tool provides a powerful yet straightforward solution for tracking file activity on Windows.