Launchd WatchPath Arguments?

Hi Rob,
I can't help you decide between Folder Actions and WatchPaths except to suggest that it boils down to whether you are more comfortable with shell scripts or AppleScripts. I hope that it doesn't surprise you that on this forum you're going to hear a number of votes for shell scripts and that's certainly the way I lean. I'm far better at shell scripts than AppleScripts and I would say that it's because of the difference in the quality of the documentation.

I use something in the rough direction of what you describe. I call it newlog and it's just a three line script:

date
diff ~luminis/.new_logs.txt <( find $CP_ROOT -name " .log" -ls )
find $CP_ROOT -name " .log" -ls >| ~luminis/.new_logs.txt

The output isn't pretty but it tells me every log file that has changed since the last time the script was run. It does this by searching for the log files and dumping the output into a file. The output is a long listing of the file. The next time it runs it performs the search again and uses the "diff" command to compare the latest search with the previous "dumped" one. Then it runs the search another time, again dumping the output into the file to "freshen" it. The part of the listing that changes will of course be the modification date. That way I can get a report of which log files have changed.

You can do something similar but you probably don't need the "find" command. You can just do a listing of everything and save it. Then each time the script is run, it compares a new listing with the saved one. If you use the "diff" command to do that, its output will contain arrows ('<'re really doing is keeping a text copy of records that are already kept elsewhere in the system. For what do you need this?

Anyway, if you need help with this script, provide some details and I'll help you write it. I've done stuff like this before. In fact, I have a script that compares directories with what the contents should be as predicted by the BOM files in the installer package receipts.
--
Gary
~~~~
If you couldn't find any weirdness,
maybe we'll just have to make some!
-- Calvin

Hi Rob,
I'm sorry for the slow reply as I developed the answer before you responded. However, I enjoyed a SuperBowl party out of town. Anyway, I wrote a short script that creates a hidden file in the same directory as the directory whose contents are being watched. The script should work for files and directories that have spaces in the name. In the hidden file the script stores the contents of the directory each time the script is run and stores changes in two variables: one for files that have disappeared and one for files that are new. Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash

DATE=""
TARGET="$1"
TARGET_BASE="$( basename "$TARGET" )"
TARGET_DIR="$( dirname "$TARGET" )"
if [ -e "$TARGET_DIR"/."$TARGET_BASE" ]; then
DATE="$( ls -l "$TARGET_DIR"/."$TARGET_BASE" | awk '{ print $6, $7, $8 }' )"
fi
touch "$TARGET_DIR"/."$TARGET_BASE"
DIFF_LIST=$( diff <( find "$TARGET" | sort -u ) "$TARGET_DIR"/."$TARGET_BASE" )
MISSING=$( echo "$DIFF_LIST" | sed -n 's/^> //p' )
NEW=$( echo "$DIFF_LIST" | sed -n 's/^< //p' )
find "$TARGET" | sort -u >| "$TARGET_DIR"/."$TARGET_BASE"

This doesn't "notice" files that have simply been modified but that's a relatively simple extension. It would require obtaining a long listing of each file with the "-ls" option of the "find" command and saving it in the hidden file. One would also have to search the MISSING list for each file in the NEW list to distinguish the new files from newly modified files.
--
Gary
~~~~
briefcase, n:
A trial where the jury gets together and forms a
lynching party.