Watchexec CLI

A simple standalone tool that watches a path and runs a command whenever it detects modifications.

Example use cases:

• Automatically run unit tests
• Run linters/syntax checkers

Features

• Simple invocation and use

• Runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, and more

• Monitors current directory and all subdirectories for changes

  • Uses efficient event polling mechanism (on Linux, Mac, Windows, BSD)

• Coalesces multiple filesystem events into one, for editors that use swap/backup files during saving

• By default, uses .gitignore, .ignore, and other such files to determine which files to ignore notifications for

• Support for watching files with a specific extension

• Support for filtering/ignoring events based on glob patterns

• Launches the command in a new process group (can be disabled with --no-process-group)

• Optionally clears screen between executions

• Optionally restarts the command with every modification (good for servers)

• Optionally sends a desktop notification on command start and end

• Does not require a language runtime

• Sets the following environment variables in the process:

  $WATCHEXEC_COMMON_PATH is set to the longest common path of all of the below variables, and so should be prepended to each path to obtain the full/real path.

  Variable name	Event kind
  $WATCHEXEC_CREATED_PATH	files/folders were created
  $WATCHEXEC_REMOVED_PATH	files/folders were removed
  $WATCHEXEC_RENAMED_PATH	files/folders were renamed
  $WATCHEXEC_WRITTEN_PATH	files/folders were modified
  $WATCHEXEC_META_CHANGED_PATH	files/folders' metadata were modified
  $WATCHEXEC_OTHERWISE_CHANGED_PATH	every other kind of event

  These variables may contain multiple paths: these are separated by the platform's path separator, as with the PATH system environment variable. On Unix that is :, and on Windows ;. Within each variable, paths are deduplicated and sorted in binary order (i.e. neither Unicode nor locale aware).

  This can be disabled with --emit-events=none or changed to JSON events on STDIN with --emit-events=json-stdio.

Anti-Features

• Not tied to any particular language or ecosystem
• Not tied to Git or the presence of a repository/project
• Does not require a cryptic command line involving xargs

Usage Examples

Watch all JavaScript, CSS and HTML files in the current directory and all subdirectories for changes, running make when a change is detected:

$ watchexec --exts js,css,html make

Call make test when any file changes in this directory/subdirectory, except for everything below target:

$ watchexec -i "target/**" make test

Call ls -la when any file changes in this directory/subdirectory:

$ watchexec -- ls -la

Call/restart python server.py when any Python file in the current directory (and all subdirectories) changes:

$ watchexec -e py -r python server.py

Call/restart my_server when any file in the current directory (and all subdirectories) changes, sending SIGKILL to stop the command:

$ watchexec -r --stop-signal SIGKILL my_server

Send a SIGHUP to the command upon changes (Note: using -n here we're executing my_server directly, instead of wrapping it in a shell:

$ watchexec -n --signal SIGHUP my_server

Run make when any file changes, using the .gitignore file in the current directory to filter:

$ watchexec make

Run make when any file in lib or src changes:

$ watchexec -w lib -w src make

Run bundle install when the Gemfile changes:

$ watchexec -w Gemfile bundle install

Run two commands:

$ watchexec 'date; make'

Get desktop ("toast") notifications when the command starts and finishes:

$ watchexec -N go build

Only run when files are created:

$ watchexec --fs-events create -- s3 sync . s3://my-bucket

If you come from entr, note that the watchexec command is run in a shell by default. You can use -n or --shell=none to not do that:

$ watchexec -n -- echo ';' lorem ipsum

On Windows, you may prefer to use Powershell:

$ watchexec --shell=pwsh -- Test-Connection example.com

You can eschew running commands entirely and get a stream of events to process on your own:

$ watchexec --emit-events-to=json-stdio --only-emit-events

{"tags":[{"kind":"source","source":"filesystem"},{"kind":"fs","simple":"modify","full":"Modify(Data(Any))"},{"kind":"path","absolute":"/home/code/rust/watchexec/crates/cli/README.md","filetype":"file"}]}
{"tags":[{"kind":"source","source":"filesystem"},{"kind":"fs","simple":"modify","full":"Modify(Data(Any))"},{"kind":"path","absolute":"/home/code/rust/watchexec/crates/lib/Cargo.toml","filetype":"file"}]}
{"tags":[{"kind":"source","source":"filesystem"},{"kind":"fs","simple":"modify","full":"Modify(Data(Any))"},{"kind":"path","absolute":"/home/code/rust/watchexec/crates/cli/src/args.rs","filetype":"file"}]}

Print the time commands take to run:

$ watchexec --timings -- make
[Running: make]
...
[Command was successful, lasted 52.748081074s]

Installation

Package manager

Watchexec is in many package managers. A full list of known packages is available, and there may be more out there! Please contribute any you find to the list :)

Common package managers:

• Alpine: $ apk add watchexec
• ArchLinux: $ pacman -S watchexec
• Nix: $ nix-shell -p watchexec
• Debian/Ubuntu via apt.cli.rs: $ apt install watchexec
• Homebrew on Mac: $ brew install watchexec
• Chocolatey on Windows: #> choco install watchexec

Binstall

$ cargo binstall watchexec-cli

Pre-built binaries

Use the download section on Github or the website to obtain the package appropriate for your platform and architecture, extract it, and place it in your PATH.

There are also Debian/Ubuntu (DEB) and Fedora/RedHat (RPM) packages.

Checksums and signatures are available.

Cargo (from source)

Only the latest Rust stable is supported, but older versions may work.

$ cargo install watchexec-cli

Shell completions

Currently available shell completions:

• bash: completions/bash should be installed to /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/watchexec
• elvish: completions/elvish should be installed to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/elvish/completions/
• fish: completions/fish should be installed to /usr/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/watchexec.fish
• nu: completions/nu should be installed to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nu/completions/
• powershell: completions/powershell should be installed to $PROFILE/
• zsh: completions/zsh should be installed to /usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_watchexec

If not bundled, you can generate completions for your shell with watchexec --completions <shell>.

Manual

There's a manual page at doc/watchexec.1. Install it to /usr/share/man/man1/. If not bundled, you can generate a manual page with watchexec --manual > /path/to/watchexec.1, or view it inline with watchexec --manual (requires man).

You can also read a text version.

Note that it is automatically generated from the help text, so it is not as pretty as a carefully hand-written one.

Advanced builds

These are additional options available with custom builds by setting features:

PID1

If you're using Watchexec as PID1 (most frequently in containers or namespaces), and it's not doing what you expect, you can create a build with PID1 early logging: --features pid1-withlog.

If you don't need PID1 support, or if you're doing something that conflicts with this program's PID1 support, you can disable it with --no-default-features.

Eyra

Eyra is a system to build Linux programs with no dependency on C code (in the libc path). To build Watchexec like this, use --features eyra and a Nightly compiler.

This feature also lets you get early logging into program startup, with RUST_LOG=trace.