Help: Execute php script on directory content change.

[ampao]

Hello everyone, first time poster and I have a question for you.

I'm trying to run a php script whenever a specific directory's files and/or folders are edited/added/deleted.

It has to be run through CLI.

Any suggestions on how to do this?

Thanks!

[scathefire]

The simplest way would be to use cron.

[ampao]

The simplest way would be to use cron.

Thanks, but I cant use cron since the directory gets changed randomly. And I want the php to run everytime the directory changes. I want it to run within the same minute as possible.

Unless theres a way to cron it that I dont know yet.

[Irithori]

Hi,
Inotify is what you want.
There are several userland tools.

1) incrond
This is a relatively simple tool. Similar to cron but fs event based.
It can watch multiple directories, but not recursive.
Once one or multiple events such as IN_CLOSE_WRITE is/are received, it executes a given script/tool.

Note: incrond is very picky about tabs/white spaces/line feeds.
- Only use *one* space to separate the parts of a incrontab.
- Never use tabs (On that one I agree, actually )
- There needs to be a line feed at the end of the file

2) lsyncd
Contrary to what the name suggests, its capabilities exceed file syncing.
By far.
It can watch directories recursively.
The actions are controlled via lua, aka it is very versatile.

3) PHP Pecl Inotify
This would have the advantage to not mix multiple languages.
But then again -in your case- you would need to run your php application as a daemon