Cross platform, works on:

• Windows
• Linux
• BSD
• OSX

We plan to include os/fsnotify in the Go standard library with a new API.

• Import code.google.com/p/go.exp/fsnotify (GoDoc) for the latest API under development.
• Continue importing github.com/howeyc/fsnotify (GoDoc) for the stable API.
• Report Issues to go.exp/fsnotify after testing against code.google.com/p/go.exp/fsnotify
• Join golang-dev to discuss fsnotify.
• See the Contribution Guidelines for Go and sign the CLA.

package main import ( "log" "github.com/howeyc/fsnotify" ) func main() { watcher, err := fsnotify.NewWatcher() if err != nil { log.Fatal(err)	} done := make(chan bool) // Process events go func() { for { select { case ev := <-watcher.Event: log.Println("event:", ev) case err := <-watcher.Error: log.Println("error:", err)	}	}	}() err = watcher.Watch("testDir") if err != nil { log.Fatal(err)	} <-done /* ... do stuff ... */ watcher.Close() }

For each event:

• Name
• IsCreate()
• IsDelete()
• IsModify()
• IsRename()

When a file is moved to another directory is it still being watched?

No (it shouldn't be, unless you are watching where it was moved to).

When I watch a directory, are all subdirectories watched as well?

No, you must add watches for any directory you want to watch (a recursive watcher is in the works #56).

Do I have to watch the Error and Event channels in a separate goroutine?

As of now, yes. Looking into making this single-thread friendly (see #7)

Why am I receiving multiple events for the same file on OS X?

Spotlight indexing on OS X can result in multiple events (see #62). A temporary workaround is to add your folder(s) to the Spotlight Privacy settings until we have a native FSEvents implementation (see #54).

How many files can be watched at once?

There are OS-specific limits as to how many watches can be created:

• Linux: /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches contains the limit, reaching this limit results in a "no space left on device" error.
• BSD / OSX: sysctl variables "kern.maxfiles" and "kern.maxfilesperproc", reaching these limits results in a "too many open files" error.