mustardwatch

Run a command, tracing it to detect files it uses (or might use), and watch those files for changes. When a file changes, rerun the command.

mustardwatch is implemented using the Linux ptrace API (like strace). It currently only supports x86-64 Linux.

Building

Run ./make and then use or install ./build/mustardwatch.

Documentation

See mustardwatch --help:

Usage: mustardwatch [OPTION...] COMMAND [ARG...]
Run a command, tracing it to detect files it uses (or might use), and watch
those files for changes. When a file changes, rerun the command.

File events generated while the command is running are ignored. Files in
common global directories (/bin, /dev, /etc, /lib, /proc, /sys, /tmp, /usr)
are skipped by default.

Files used by subprocesses are also tracked (but note that all subprocesses
are killed when the main process exits).

Options:
  -c, --clear        clear screen before running program
  -d, --directories  watch directories as well as regular files
  -g, --global       do not skip files in common global directories
  -o, --out=FILE     rather than respawning the process when files change,
                       write out a list of watched files to FILE, then exit
  -v, --verbose      show verbose output (watched files and events)
                       (use multiple times for more verbose output)
      --help         print this message

For more details, see the comments in mustardwatch.c.