#watchexec

Software development often involves running the same commands over and over. Boring!

watchexec is a simple, standalone tool that watches a path and runs a command whenever it detects modifications.

Example use cases:

• Automatically run unit tests
• Run linters/syntax checkers

##Status

Beta: CLI arguments subject to change

##Features

• Simple invocation and use
• Runs on OS X, Linux and Windows
• Monitors path specified on command line for changes
  • Uses most efficient event polling mechanism, based on platform (except for BSD)
• Coalesces multiple filesystem events into one, for editors that use swap/backup files during saving
• Support for filtering/ignoring events based on glob patterns
• Optionally clears screen between executions
• Does not require a language runtime
• Small (~100 LOC)

##Anti-Features

• Not tied to any particular language or ecosystem
• Does not require a cryptic command line involving xargs

##Usage

Call make test when there are any changes in the src directory:

$ watchexec src make test

Call make test when any Python file changes in this directory, or a subdirectory:

$ watchexec -f '*.py' . make test

Call make test when any file changes in this directory/subdirectory, except for everything below target:

$ watchexec -i target . make test

Always quote glob patterns (*.py)!

##Installation

###OS X with Homebrew

$ brew install mattgreen/watchexec/watchexec

##Credits

• notify for doing most of the heavy-lifting