watcher – rerun development commands when files change

watcher is a command-line utility that monitors files in a directory and runs a command whenever a relevant filesystem change occurs. It is intended to simplify development workflows involving frequent editing, compilation and testing.

The program can monitor the current working directory or a separately specified location. When files are created, modified or deleted, watcher executes a configured command. It can also attempt to recognise an appropriate command from the structure of a development project.

watcher includes controls for managing how and when commands run. A configurable delay helps avoid repeated execution during closely spaced filesystem events, while ignore rules prevent changes to unrelated files from triggering unnecessary work.

The utility can also manage long-running processes, including development servers. Its combination of automatic command detection and configurable file monitoring makes it useful for straightforward development automation without requiring a more elaborate build system.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Watch the current directory or a specified directory for filesystem changes.
• Detect file creation, modification and deletion.
• Execute a user-defined command when changes occur.
• Automatically recognise commands for supported project structures.
• Configurable delay before executing a command after a change.
• Optionally execute the command immediately when watcher starts.
• Supports long-running processes, including development servers.
• Ignore files using configurable patterns.
• Supports ignore files using Gitignore-style syntax.
• Optionally include or exclude hidden files from monitoring.
• Display the list of monitored files when starting.
• Configurable maximum number of monitored files.
• Optionally clear the terminal between command executions.
• Manual refresh controls can trigger execution without a detected change.

Website: github.com/sethigeet/watcher
Support:
Developer: Geet Sethi
License: Apache License 2.0

watcher is written in Go. Learn Go with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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