gorun

(c) Peter Bengtsson, Fry-IT, peter@fry-it.com, 2009 License: Python

Using (py)inotify to run commands when files change

Tired of switching console, arrow-up, Enter, switch console back for every little change you make when you're writing code that has tests? Running with gorun.py enables you to just save in your editor and the tests are run automatically and immediately.

gorun.py does not use a slow pulling process which keeps taps on files modification time. Instead it uses the inotify which is...

inotify is a Linux kernel subsystem that provides file system event notification

Installation

This will only work on Linux which has the inotify module enabled in the kernel. (Most modern kernels do)

First install pyinotify the usual way:

    $ easy_install pyinotify

Then download gorun and put gorun.py into your ~/bin directory and make it executable. Then, create a settings file, which is just a python file that is expected to define a variable called DIRECTORIES. Here's an example:

    DIRECTORIES = (
  ('some/place/', './myframework test --dir some/place'),
  ('some/place/unitests.py', 
   './myframework test --dir some/place --testclass Unittests'),
  ('/var/log/torrentsdownload.log',
   'growl downloads --logfile /var/log/torrentsdownload.log'),
)

Save that file as, for example, gorun_settings.py and then start it like this:

    $ gorun.py gorun_settings

Disclaimer

This code hasn't been extensively tested and relies on importing python modules so don't let untrusted morons fiddle with your dev environment.

Todo

When doing Django development I often run on single test method over and over and over again till I get rid of all errors. When doing this I have to change the settings so it just runs one single test and when I'm done I go back to set it up so that it runs all tests when adjacent code works.

This is a nuisance and I might try to solve that one day. If you have any tips please let me know.