notify

Filesystem event notification library on steroids.

Features

• Cross-platform - Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD
• Recursive watching - Watch directories recursively
• Flexible filtering - Filter events by type (Create, Write, Remove, Rename)
• Ignore system - Exclude unwanted paths using gitignore-style patterns
• High performance - Platform-specific implementations for efficiency
• Robust and tested - Production ready, used by many projects

Documentation

godoc.org/github.com/raphamorim/notify

Installation

go get -u github.com/raphamorim/notify

Quick Start

package main

import (
    "log"
    "github.com/raphamorim/notify"
)

func main() {
    // Make the channel buffered to ensure no event is dropped. Notify will drop
    // an event if the receiver is not able to keep up the sending pace.
    c := make(chan notify.EventInfo, 1)

    // Set up a watchpoint listening for events within a directory tree rooted
    // at current working directory. Dispatch remove events to c.
    if err := notify.Watch("./...", c, notify.Create, notify.Write); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer notify.Stop(c)

    // Block until an event is received.
    for {
        select {
        case ei := <-c:
            log.Println("Got event:", ei)
        }
    }
}

Ignore System

The notify library includes a powerful ignore system that filters out unwanted file system events using gitignore-style patterns.

Basic Usage

// Method 1: Set ignore patterns directly
err := notify.SetIgnorePatterns([]string{
    ".git/",
    "node_modules/",
    "*.tmp",
    "*.log",
    "!important.log",  // Don't ignore important.log
})

// Method 2: Load from a .notifyignore file
err := notify.LoadIgnoreFile(".notifyignore")

// Method 3: Use default ignore patterns
err := notify.EnableDefaultIgnorePatterns()

Advanced Usage

// Create a custom IgnoreMatcher
im := notify.NewIgnoreMatcher("/path/to/project")
im.AddPattern("vendor/")
im.AddPattern("**/*.bak")
im.AddPattern("build/")
im.AddPattern("!build/important/")  // Don't ignore this subdirectory

// Load additional patterns from a file
im.LoadIgnoreFile(".gitignore")

// Set as the global ignore matcher
notify.SetIgnoreMatcher(im)

Pattern Syntax

Pattern	Description
*.log	Match all .log files
build/	Match directories named "build"
/src	Match "src" at the root only
**/test/	Match "test" directories at any level
!important.txt	Negate a pattern (don't ignore)
*.{jpg,png}	Match multiple extensions
temp*	Match files/dirs starting with "temp"

Example .notifyignore file

# Version control
.git/
.svn/
.hg/

# Dependencies
node_modules/
vendor/
bower_components/

# Build outputs
build/
dist/
*.exe
*.dll
*.so
*.dylib

# Temporary files
*.tmp
*.temp
*.log
*.swp
*.swo
*~

# OS files
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# IDE files
.idea/
.vscode/
*.iml

# But keep important files
!important.log
!build/keep/

Event Types

Event	Description
notify.Create	File or directory created
notify.Write	File written to
notify.Remove	File or directory deleted
notify.Rename	File or directory renamed
notify.All	All events

Platform Support

Platform	Adapter	Status
Linux	inotify	Supported
macOS	FSEvents	Supported
Windows	ReadDirectoryChangesW	Supported
BSD	kqueue	Supported
illumos	FEN	Supported

Projects using notify

• github.com/raphamorim/cmd/notify
• github.com/cortesi/devd
• github.com/cortesi/modd
• github.com/syncthing/syncthing
• github.com/OrlovEvgeny/TinyJPG
• github.com/mitranim/gow

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

The MIT License (MIT). See LICENSE file for more details.