FILENOTIFYCHANGEDIRNAME

FILENOTIFYCHAN is a generic file system change notification channel that streams events to interested consumers. It provides a subscription mechanism that delivers notifications when files or directories are created, modified, renamed, or deleted within a watched set of paths.

Backends may be platform-specific, using inotify on Linux, FSEvents on macOS, or ReadDirectoryChangesW on Windows, or they may implement polling-based watchers for portability. A FILENOTIFYCHAN typically delivers events through a conduit or channel, possibly with buffering, and supports filtering by path, pattern, or event type.

Common features include recursive watching, debouncing to coalesce rapid sequences of changes, batching, error handling, and cancellation support. Implementations may preserve event order, handle duplicates, and provide means to recover from missed events after restarts.

Usage generally involves initializing the watcher with one or more paths and options, then consuming events in an event loop and taking action such as rebuilding, synchronization, or logging when changes are detected.

See also: file system watcher, inotify, FSEvents, ReadDirectoryChangesW.