large-watcher

A watcher for NodeJS, that works well with large directories. It leverages the unix find command for improved performance and reliability.

Install

npm install large-watcher

Example

var watcher = require('large-watcher');
 
var w = watcher('/Users/aaron/git/large-watcher', 1).start();
 
var log = console.log.bind(console);
 
w.on('change', log.bind(null, 'change'));
w.on('created', log.bind(null, 'created'));
w.on('deleted', log.bind(null, 'deleted'));
w.on('modified', log.bind(null, 'modified'));

Methods

watcher(directory, seconds)

Creates an instance of the watcher, that polls directory every seconds for changes

.start()

Initiates watching, starts polling directory for changes

.stop()

Stops watching, clears polling. .start() must be called again for any changed to happen

.cleanup()

Stops watcher and removes all event listeners

Events

.on('change',

This event is triggered whenever any files are modified or deleted. It's data is simply the combination of modified and deleted events' data. Example :

{
    deleted: ["./remove-file", "./another-removed-file-somewhere"],
    modified: ["./this-file-was-modified"],
}

.on('created',

Whenenver newly created files are detected, returns list of created filenames, like :

[
    "./file_a",
    "./file_b"
]

.on('modified',

Whenenver modified files are detected, returns list of modified filenames, like :

[
    "./file_a",
    "./file_b"
]

.on('deleted',

Whenenver modified files are detected, returns list of modified filenames, like :

[
    "./file_a",
    "./file_b"
]

.on('error'

⚠️ Must be handled or process will crash on errors.

Misc

Inspired by http://stackoverflow.com/a/24789597