How do I watch a file for changes?

Question

I have a log file being written by another process which I want to watch for changes. Each time a change occurs I\'d like to read the new data in to do some processing on it

Answer 1

I'd try something like this.

    try:
            f = open(filePath)
    except IOError:
            print "No such file: %s" % filePath
            raw_input("Press Enter to close window")
    try:
            lines = f.readlines()
            while True:
                    line = f.readline()
                    try:
                            if not line:
                                    time.sleep(1)
                            else:
                                    functionThatAnalisesTheLine(line)
                    except Exception, e:
                            # handle the exception somehow (for example, log the trace) and raise the same exception again
                            raw_input("Press Enter to close window")
                            raise e
    finally:
            f.close()

The loop checks if there is a new line(s) since last time file was read - if there is, it's read and passed to the functionThatAnalisesTheLine function. If not, script waits 1 second and retries the process.