$ python -m pip install -U watchdog
# or to install the watchmedo utility:
$ python -m pip install -U 'watchdog[watchmedo]'

$ wget -c https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/w/watchdog/watchdog-5.0.0.tar.gz
$ tar zxvf watchdog-5.0.0.tar.gz
$ cd watchdog-5.0.0
$ python -m pip install -e .
# or to install the watchmedo utility:
$ python -m pip install -e '.[watchmedo]'

$ git clone --recursive git://github.com/gorakhargosh/watchdog.git
$ cd watchdog
$ python -m pip install -e .
# or to install the watchmedo utility:
$ python -m pip install -e '.[watchmedo]'

• kqueue
• FSEvents

import time
from watchdog.events import FileSystemEvent, FileSystemEventHandler
from watchdog.observers import Observer
class MyEventHandler(FileSystemEventHandler):


    def on_any_event(self, event: FileSystemEvent) -> None:


        print(event)
event_handler = MyEventHandler()
observer = Observer()
observer.schedule(event_handler, ".", recursive=True)
observer.start()
try:


    while True:


        time.sleep(1)
finally:


    observer.stop()


    observer.join()

is_directory: bool = False

True if event was synthesized; False otherwise. These are events that weren't actually broadcast by the OS, but are presumed to have happened based on other, actual events.

is_directory: bool = True

True if event was synthesized; False otherwise. These are events that weren't actually broadcast by the OS, but are presumed to have happened based on other, actual events.

is_directory: bool = True

True if event was synthesized; False otherwise. These are events that weren't actually broadcast by the OS, but are presumed to have happened based on other, actual events.

is_directory: bool = True

True if event was synthesized; False otherwise. These are events that weren't actually broadcast by the OS, but are presumed to have happened based on other, actual events.

is_directory: bool = True

True if event was synthesized; False otherwise. These are events that weren't actually broadcast by the OS, but are presumed to have happened based on other, actual events.

dispatch(event: FileSystemEvent) -> None

Dispatches events to the appropriate methods.

on_any_event(event: FileSystemEvent) -> None

Catch-all event handler.

on_closed(event: FileClosedEvent) -> None

Called when a file opened for writing is closed.

on_closed_no_write(event: FileClosedNoWriteEvent) -> None

Called when a file opened for reading is closed.

on_created(event: DirCreatedEvent | FileCreatedEvent) -> None

Called when a file or directory is created.

on_deleted(event: DirDeletedEvent | FileDeletedEvent) -> None

Called when a file or directory is deleted.

on_modified(event: DirModifiedEvent | FileModifiedEvent) -> None

Called when a file or directory is modified.

on_moved(event: DirMovedEvent | FileMovedEvent) -> None

Called when a file or a directory is moved or renamed.

on_opened(event: FileOpenedEvent) -> None

Called when a file is opened.

property case_sensitive: bool

(Read-only) True if path names should be matched sensitive to case; False otherwise.

dispatch(event: FileSystemEvent) -> None

Dispatches events to the appropriate methods.

property ignore_directories: bool

(Read-only) True if directories should be ignored; False otherwise.

property ignore_patterns: list[str] | None

(Read-only) Patterns to ignore matching event paths.

property patterns: list[str] | None

(Read-only) Patterns to allow matching event paths.

property case_sensitive: bool

(Read-only) True if path names should be matched sensitive to case; False otherwise.

dispatch(event: FileSystemEvent) -> None

Dispatches events to the appropriate methods.

property ignore_directories: bool

(Read-only) True if directories should be ignored; False otherwise.

property ignore_regexes: list[Pattern[str]]

(Read-only) Regexes to ignore matching event paths.

property regexes: list[Pattern[str]]

(Read-only) Regexes to allow matching event paths.

on_closed(event: FileClosedEvent) -> None

Called when a file opened for writing is closed.

on_closed_no_write(event: FileClosedNoWriteEvent) -> None

Called when a file opened for reading is closed.

on_created(event: DirCreatedEvent | FileCreatedEvent) -> None

Called when a file or directory is created.

on_deleted(event: DirDeletedEvent | FileDeletedEvent) -> None

Called when a file or directory is deleted.

on_modified(event: DirModifiedEvent | FileModifiedEvent) -> None

Called when a file or directory is modified.

on_moved(event: DirMovedEvent | FileMovedEvent) -> None

Called when a file or a directory is moved or renamed.

on_opened(event: FileOpenedEvent) -> None

Called when a file is opened.

Parameters

property event_filter: frozenset[type[FileSystemEvent]] | None

Collection of event types watched for the path

property is_recursive: bool

Determines whether subdirectories are watched for the path.

property path: str

The path that this watch monitors.

Parameters

queue_event(event: FileSystemEvent) -> None

Queues a single event.

queue_events(timeout: float) -> None

Override this method to populate the event queue with events per interval period.

run() -> None

Method representing the thread's activity.

You may override this method in a subclass. The standard run() method invokes the callable object passed to the object's constructor as the target argument, if any, with sequential and keyword arguments taken from the args and kwargs arguments, respectively.

property timeout: float

Blocking timeout for reading events.

property watch: ObservedWatch

The watch associated with this emitter.

Parameters

timeout (float) -- Timeout value (in seconds) passed to emitters constructions in the child class BaseObserver.

dispatch_events(event_queue: EventQueue) -> None

Override this method to consume events from an event queue, blocking on the queue for the specified timeout before raising queue.Empty.

property event_queue: EventQueue

The event queue which is populated with file system events by emitters and from which events are dispatched by a dispatcher thread.

run() -> None

Method representing the thread's activity.

You may override this method in a subclass. The standard run() method invokes the callable object passed to the object's constructor as the target argument, if any, with sequential and keyword arguments taken from the args and kwargs arguments, respectively.

stop() -> None

Signals the thread to stop.

stop_event = <object object>

Event inserted into the queue to signal a requested stop.

property timeout: float

Timeout value to construct emitters with.

add_handler_for_watch(event_handler: FileSystemEventHandler, watch: ObservedWatch) -> None

Adds a handler for the given watch.

dispatch_events(event_queue: EventQueue) -> None

Override this method to consume events from an event queue, blocking on the queue for the specified timeout before raising queue.Empty.

property emitters: set[EventEmitter]

Returns event emitter created by this observer.

on_thread_stop() -> None

Override this method instead of stop(). stop() calls this method.

This method is called immediately after the thread is signaled to stop.

remove_handler_for_watch(event_handler: FileSystemEventHandler, watch: ObservedWatch) -> None

Removes a handler for the given watch.

schedule(event_handler: FileSystemEventHandler, path: str, *, recursive: bool = False, event_filter: list[type[FileSystemEvent]] | None = None) -> ObservedWatch

Schedules watching a path and calls appropriate methods specified in the given event handler in response to file system events.

start() -> None

Start the thread's activity.

It must be called at most once per thread object. It arranges for the object's run() method to be invoked in a separate thread of control.

This method will raise a RuntimeError if called more than once on the same thread object.

unschedule(watch: ObservedWatch) -> None

Unschedules a watch.

unschedule_all() -> None

Unschedules all watches and detaches all associated event handlers.

__init__(stat: Callable[[str], os.stat_result], listdir: Callable[[str | None], Iterator[os.DirEntry]], *, polling_interval: int = 1) -> None

property daemon

A boolean value indicating whether this thread is a daemon thread.

This must be set before start() is called, otherwise RuntimeError is raised. Its initial value is inherited from the creating thread; the main thread is not a daemon thread and therefore all threads created in the main thread default to daemon = False.

The entire Python program exits when only daemon threads are left.

getName()

Return a string used for identification purposes only.

This method is deprecated, use the name attribute instead.

property ident

Thread identifier of this thread or None if it has not been started.

This is a nonzero integer. See the get_ident() function. Thread identifiers may be recycled when a thread exits and another thread is created. The identifier is available even after the thread has exited.

isDaemon()

Return whether this thread is a daemon.

This method is deprecated, use the daemon attribute instead.

is_alive()

Return whether the thread is alive.

This method returns True just before the run() method starts until just after the run() method terminates. See also the module function enumerate().

join(timeout=None)

Wait until the thread terminates.

This blocks the calling thread until the thread whose join() method is called terminates -- either normally or through an unhandled exception or until the optional timeout occurs.

When the timeout argument is present and not None, it should be a floating-point number specifying a timeout for the operation in seconds (or fractions thereof). As join() always returns None, you must call is_alive() after join() to decide whether a timeout happened -- if the thread is still alive, the join() call timed out.

When the timeout argument is not present or None, the operation will block until the thread terminates.

A thread can be join()ed many times.

join() raises a RuntimeError if an attempt is made to join the current thread as that would cause a deadlock. It is also an error to join() a thread before it has been started and attempts to do so raises the same exception.

property name

A string used for identification purposes only.

It has no semantics. Multiple threads may be given the same name. The initial name is set by the constructor.

property native_id

Native integral thread ID of this thread, or None if it has not been started.

This is a non-negative integer. See the get_native_id() function. This represents the Thread ID as reported by the kernel.

on_thread_start() -> None

Override this method instead of start(). start() calls this method.

This method is called right before this thread is started and this object's run() method is invoked.

on_thread_stop() -> None

Override this method instead of stop(). stop() calls this method.

This method is called immediately after the thread is signaled to stop.

run()

Method representing the thread's activity.

You may override this method in a subclass. The standard run() method invokes the callable object passed to the object's constructor as the target argument, if any, with sequential and keyword arguments taken from the args and kwargs arguments, respectively.

setDaemon(daemonic)

Set whether this thread is a daemon.

This method is deprecated, use the .daemon property instead.

setName(name)

Set the name string for this thread.

This method is deprecated, use the name attribute instead.

should_keep_running() -> bool

Determines whether the thread should continue running.

start() -> None

Start the thread's activity.

It must be called at most once per thread object. It arranges for the object's run() method to be invoked in a separate thread of control.

This method will raise a RuntimeError if called more than once on the same thread object.

stop() -> None

Signals the thread to stop.

Where are the moved events? They 'disappeared'

This implementation does not take partition boundaries into consideration. It will only work when the directory tree is entirely on the same file system. More specifically, any part of the code that depends on inode numbers can break if partition boundaries are crossed. In these cases, the snapshot diff will represent file/directory movement as created and deleted events.

Parameters

inode(path: bytes | str) -> tuple[int, int]

Returns an id for path.

path(uid: tuple[int, int]) -> bytes | str | None

Returns path for id. None if id is unknown to this snapshot.

property paths: set[bytes | str]

Set of file/directory paths in the snapshot.

stat_info(path: bytes | str) -> stat_result

Returns a stat information object for the specified path from the snapshot.

Attached information is subject to change. Do not use unless you specify stat in constructor. Use inode(), mtime(), isdir() instead.

Parameters

class ContextManager(path: str, *, recursive: bool = True, stat: Callable[[str], os.stat_result] = <built-in function stat>, listdir: Callable[[str | None], Iterator[os.DirEntry]] = <built-in function scandir>, ignore_device: bool = False)

Bases: object

Context manager that creates two directory snapshots and a diff object that represents the difference between the two snapshots.

property dirs_created: list[bytes | str]

List of directories that were created.

property dirs_deleted: list[bytes | str]

List of directories that were deleted.

property dirs_modified: list[bytes | str]

List of directories that were modified.

property dirs_moved: list[tuple[bytes | str, bytes | str]]

List of directories that were moved.

Each event is a two-tuple the first item of which is the path that has been renamed to the second item in the tuple.

property files_created: list[bytes | str]

List of files that were created.

property files_deleted: list[bytes | str]

List of files that were deleted.

property files_modified: list[bytes | str]

List of files that were modified.

property files_moved: list[tuple[bytes | str, bytes | str]]

List of files that were moved.

Each event is a two-tuple the first item of which is the path that has been renamed to the second item in the tuple.

static path(_: Any) -> None

Mock up method to return the path of the received inode. As the snapshot is intended to be empty, it always returns None.

property paths: set

Mock up method to return a set of file/directory paths in the snapshot. As the snapshot is intended to be empty, it always returns an empty set.

on_any_event(event: FileSystemEvent) -> None

Catch-all event handler.

on_any_event(event: FileSystemEvent) -> None

Catch-all event handler.

on_any_event(event: FileSystemEvent) -> None

Catch-all event handler.

$ git clone https://github.com/gorakhargosh/watchdog.git
$ cd watchdog
$ python -m venv venv

$ . venv/bin/activate
(venv)$ python -m pip instal -e '.'

> venv\Scripts\activate
(venv)> python -m pip instal -e '.'