Watching for file and directory changes in Java

Question

I\'m writing here mostly for advice on where to start. I\'ve already implemented a class that will recursively watch a directory using Java\'s WatchService. It works quite a

Answer 1

This will allow you to experiment with creating, deleting, moving and renaming files under D:\Temp, and should allow you to learn what you need:

import static com.sun.nio.file.ExtendedWatchEventModifier.FILE_TREE;
import static java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_CREATE;
import static java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_DELETE;
import static java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_MODIFY;

import java.nio.file.FileSystem;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.nio.file.WatchEvent;
import java.nio.file.WatchKey;
import java.nio.file.WatchService;

public class Foo3
{
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {
        FileSystem fs = FileSystems.getDefault();
        WatchService ws = fs.newWatchService();
        Path pTemp = Paths.get("D:/Temp");
        pTemp.register(ws, new WatchEvent.Kind[] {ENTRY_MODIFY, ENTRY_CREATE, ENTRY_DELETE}, FILE_TREE);
        while(true)
        {
            WatchKey k = ws.take();
            for (WatchEvent<?> e : k.pollEvents())
            {
                Object c = e.context();
                System.out.printf("%s %d %s\n", e.kind(), e.count(), c);
            }
            k.reset();
        }
    }
}