How to Monitor File Changes with inotifywait

Watch files and directories for changes in real-time.

Install

apt install inotify-tools -y

Watch a Directory

inotifywait -m -r /var/www/html/

Watch for Specific Events

inotifywait -m -e modify,create,delete /var/www/html/

Auto-Restart on Change

while inotifywait -r -e modify /var/www/myapp/; do\n    systemctl restart myapp\ndone

Use Cases

• Auto-reload development servers
• Security monitoring
• Trigger builds on file changes