node-red-contrib-inotify

Inotify can be used to monitor individual files, or to monitor directories. When a directory is monitored, inotify will return events for the directory itself, and for files inside the directory. (ref: GNU/Linux Manual)

By default it's in persistent mode. You can specify false to use the non persistent mode.

The events send will contain the following fields in payload: type and event

Installation

[NodeJS][nodejs_dev] versions 0.10.x, 0.12.x, 4.x.x, 5.x.x and IO.js 1.x, 2.x, 3.x are currently supported and tested.

Message payload object structure is:

msg.payload: {
    type: Resource type watched (file or directory)
    event: { watch: Watch descriptor,
             mask: Mask of events,
             cookie: Cookie that permits to associate events,
             name: Optional name of the object being watched
    }
}

The event.name property is only present when an event is returned for a file inside a watched directory; it identifies the file path name relative to the watched director

Inotify Events

Watch for:

• Inotify.IN_ACCESS: File was accessed (read)
• Inotify.IN_ATTRIB: Metadata changed, e.g., permissions, timestamps, extended attributes, link count (since Linux 2.6.25), UID, GID, etc.
• Inotify.IN_CLOSE_WRITE: File opened for writing was closed
• Inotify.IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE: File not opened for writing was closed
• Inotify.IN_CREATE: File/directory created in the watched directory
• Inotify.IN_DELETE: File/directory deleted from the watched directory
• Inotify.IN_DELETE_SELF: Watched file/directory was deleted
• Inotify.IN_MODIFY: File was modified
• Inotify.IN_MOVE_SELF: Watched file/directory was moved
• Inotify.IN_MOVED_FROM: File moved out of the watched directory
• Inotify.IN_MOVED_TO: File moved into watched directory
• Inotify.IN_OPEN: File was opened
• Inotify.IN_ALL_EVENTS: Watch for all kind of events
• Inotify.IN_CLOSE: (IN_CLOSE_WRITE | IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE) Close
• Inotify.IN_MOVE: (IN_MOVED_FROM | IN_MOVED_TO) Moves

Additional Flags:

• Inotify.IN_ONLYDIR: Only watch the path if it is a directory.
• Inotify.IN_DONT_FOLLOW: Do not follow symbolics links
• Inotify.IN_ONESHOT: Only send events once
• Inotify.IN_MASK_ADD: Add (OR) events to watch mask for this pathname if it already exists (instead of replacing the mask).

The following bits may be set in the event.mask property returned in the callback

• Inotify.IN_IGNORED: Watch was removed explicitly with inotify.removeWatch(watch_descriptor) or automatically (the file was deleted, or the file system was unmounted)
• Inotify.IN_ISDIR: Subject of this event is a directory
• Inotify.IN_Q_OVERFLOW: Event queue overflowed (wd is -1 for this event)
• Inotify.IN_UNMOUNT: File system containing the watched object was unmounted

Example

Upload a file from a FTP service to a shared folder watched from inotify node-red node. The debug obtained is:

8/1/2017 12:29:073d8ea7a0.d0cef8
msg.payload : Object
{ "type": "file", "event": { "watch": 1, "mask": 32, "cookie": 0, "name": "Declaracion.png" } }
28/1/2017 12:29:073d8ea7a0.d0cef8
msg.payload : Object
{ "type": "file", "event": { "watch": 1, "mask": 8, "cookie": 0, "name": "Declaracion.png" } }
28/1/2017 12:29:073d8ea7a0.d0cef8
msg.payload : Object
{ "type": "directory", "event": { "watch": 1, "mask": 1073741856, "cookie": 0 } }
28/1/2017 12:29:073d8ea7a0.d0cef8
msg.payload : Object
{ "type": "directory", "event": { "watch": 1, "mask": 1073741840, "cookie": 0 } }
28/1/2017 12:29:103d8ea7a0.d0cef8
msg.payload : Object
{ "type": "file", "event": { "watch": 1, "mask": 32, "cookie": 0, "name": "Declaracion.png" } }
28/1/2017 12:29:103d8ea7a0.d0cef8
msg.payload : Object
{ "type": "file", "event": { "watch": 1, "mask": 16, "cookie": 0, "name": "Declaracion.png" } }

Sample Node-RED flow capture

Thanks

Thanks to c4milo for this great node package inotify