watching a file

[Benjamin D. LeMasurier]

Hey everyone,

Is there a way to "watch" a file for changes? I know I could poll the
file every few seconds and check to see if the buffer has changed but
is there a cleaner way?

thanks!

Ben

 

[Mike Wahler]

Hey everyone,

Is there a way to "watch" a file for changes?

I assume you mean changes made by some other process.
Otherwise your program already 'knows' when it changes
things.

I know I could poll the
file every few seconds and check to see if the buffer has changed but
is there a cleaner way?

Depending upon your operating system, probably yes. But
standard C doesn't recognize the notion of multiple processes,
shared files, etc. Those issues are the domain of the operating
system. Ask in a forum which discuss your host platform.

-Mike

 

[dandelion]

Hey everyone,

Is there a way to "watch" a file for changes? I know I could poll the
file every few seconds and check to see if the buffer has changed but
is there a cleaner way?

Depends on your OS. AFAIK, there is no standard 'C' way to do it. On a POSIX
system, stat() and check atime.

 

[Keith Thompson]

Depends on your OS. AFAIK, there is no standard 'C' way to do it. On a POSIX
system, stat() and check atime.

<OT>
mtime, not atime. For details, consult the documentation or an
appropriate newsgroup.
</OT>

 

[Benjamin D. LeMasurier]

Depends on your OS. AFAIK, there is no standard 'C' way to do it. On a POSIX
system, stat() and check atime.

I am in a linux/unix environment. I will give stat() a try

thanks!

Ben

 

[dandelion]

<OT>
mtime, not atime. For details, consult the documentation or an
appropriate newsgroup.
</OT>

<ot>
Right of course. Errare humanum est.
</ot>