NAME

       sd_event_add_inotify, sd_event_add_inotify_fd, sd_event_source_get_inotify_mask,
       sd_event_source_get_inotify_path, sd_event_inotify_handler_t - Add an "inotify" file system inode event
       source to an event loop

SYNOPSIS

       #include <systemd/sd-event.h>

       typedef struct sd_event_source sd_event_source;

       typedef int (*sd_event_inotify_handler_t)(sd_event_source *s, const struct inotify_event *event,
                                                 void *userdata);

       int sd_event_add_inotify(sd_event *event, sd_event_source **source, const char *path, uint32_t mask,
                                sd_event_inotify_handler_t handler, void *userdata);

       int sd_event_add_inotify_fd(sd_event *event, sd_event_source **source, int fd, uint32_t mask,
                                   sd_event_inotify_handler_t handler, void *userdata);

       int sd_event_source_get_inotify_mask(sd_event_source *source, uint32_t *ret);

       int sd_event_source_get_inotify_path(sd_event_source *source, const char **ret);

DESCRIPTION

       sd_event_add_inotify() adds a new inotify(7) file system inode event source to an event loop. The event
       loop object is specified in the event parameter, the event source object is returned in the source
       parameter. The path parameter specifies the path of the file system inode to watch. The mask parameter
       specifies which types of inode events to watch specifically. It must contain an OR-ed combination of
       IN_ACCESS, IN_ATTRIB, IN_CLOSE_WRITE, ... flags. See inotify(7) for further information.

       The handler must reference a function to call when the inode changes or NULL. The handler function will
       be passed the userdata pointer, which may be chosen freely by the caller. The handler also receives a
       pointer to a struct inotify_event structure containing information about the inode event. The handler may
       return negative to signal an error (see below), other return values are ignored. If handler is NULL, a
       default handler that calls sd_event_exit(3) will be used.

       sd_event_add_inotify_fd() is identical to sd_event_add_inotify(), except that it takes a file descriptor
       to an inode (possibly an O_PATH one, but any other will do too) instead of a path in the file system.

       If multiple event sources are installed for the same inode the backing inotify watch descriptor is
       automatically shared. The mask parameter may contain any flag defined by the inotify API, with the
       exception of IN_MASK_ADD.

       The handler is enabled continuously (SD_EVENT_ON), but this may be changed with
       sd_event_source_set_enabled(3). Alternatively, the IN_ONESHOT mask flag may be used to request
       SD_EVENT_ONESHOT mode. If the handler function returns a negative error code, it will be disabled after
       the invocation, even if the SD_EVENT_ON mode was requested before.

       As a special limitation the priority of inotify event sources may only be altered (see
       sd_event_source_set_priority(3)) in the time between creation of the event source object with
       sd_event_add_inotify() and the beginning of the next event loop iteration. Attempts of changing the
       priority any later will be refused. Consider freeing and allocating a new inotify event source to change
       the priority at that point.

       To destroy an event source object use sd_event_source_unref(3), but note that the event source is only
       removed from the event loop when all references to the event source are dropped. To make sure an event
       source does not fire anymore, even when there's still a reference to it kept, consider disabling it with
       sd_event_source_set_enabled(3).

       If the second parameter of sd_event_add_inotify() is passed as NULL no reference to the event source
       object is returned. In this case the event source is considered "floating", and will be destroyed
       implicitly when the event loop itself is destroyed.

       If the handler parameter to sd_event_add_inotify() is NULL, and the event source fires, this will be
       considered a request to exit the event loop. In this case, the userdata parameter, cast to an integer, is
       passed as the exit code parameter to sd_event_exit(3).

       sd_event_source_get_inotify_mask() retrieves the configured inotify watch mask of an event source created
       previously with sd_event_add_inotify(). It takes the event source object as the source parameter and a
       pointer to a uint32_t variable to return the mask in.

       sd_event_source_get_inotify_path() retrieves the target path of the configured inotify watch of an event
       source created previously with sd_event_add_inotify(). It takes the event source object as the source
       parameter and a pointer to a const char ** variable to return the path in. The caller must not free the
       returned path.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, these functions return 0 or a positive integer. On failure, they return a negative
       errno-style error code.

   Errors
       Returned errors may indicate the following problems:

       -ENOMEM
           Not enough memory to allocate an object.

       -EINVAL
           An invalid argument has been passed. This includes specifying a mask with IN_MASK_ADD set.

       -ESTALE
           Returned by sd_event_source_add_inotify() or sd_event_source_add_inotify_fd() when the event loop is
           already terminated. Returned by sd_event_source_get_inotify_path() when no active inode data is
           assigned to the event source, e.g. when the event source is disabled.

       -ECHILD
           The event loop has been created in a different process, library or module instance.

       -EDOM
           The passed event source is not an inotify process event source.

       -EBADF
           The passed file descriptor is not valid.

       -ENOSYS
           sd_event_add_inotify_fd() or sd_event_source_get_inotify_path() was called without /proc/ mounted.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1. A simple program that uses inotify to monitor one or two directories

           /* SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT-0 */

           #include <stdio.h>
           #include <string.h>
           #include <sys/inotify.h>

           #include <systemd/sd-event.h>

           #define _cleanup_(f) __attribute__((cleanup(f)))

           static int inotify_handler(sd_event_source *source,
                                      const struct inotify_event *event,
                                      void *userdata) {

             const char *desc = NULL;

             sd_event_source_get_description(source, &desc);

             if (event->mask & IN_Q_OVERFLOW)
               printf("inotify-handler <%s>: overflow\n", desc);
             else if (event->mask & IN_CREATE)
               printf("inotify-handler <%s>: create on %s\n", desc, event->name);
             else if (event->mask & IN_DELETE)
               printf("inotify-handler <%s>: delete on %s\n", desc, event->name);
             else if (event->mask & IN_MOVED_TO)
               printf("inotify-handler <%s>: moved-to on %s\n", desc, event->name);

             /* Terminate the program if an "exit" file appears */
             if ((event->mask & (IN_CREATE|IN_MOVED_TO)) &&
                 strcmp(event->name, "exit") == 0)
               sd_event_exit(sd_event_source_get_event(source), 0);

             return 1;
           }

           int main(int argc, char **argv) {
             _cleanup_(sd_event_unrefp) sd_event *event = NULL;
             _cleanup_(sd_event_source_unrefp) sd_event_source *source1 = NULL, *source2 = NULL;

             const char *path1 = argc > 1 ? argv[1] : "/tmp";
             const char *path2 = argc > 2 ? argv[2] : NULL;

             /* Note: failure handling is omitted for brevity */

             sd_event_default(&event);

             sd_event_add_inotify(event, &source1, path1,
                                  IN_CREATE | IN_DELETE | IN_MODIFY | IN_MOVED_TO,
                                  inotify_handler, NULL);
             if (path2)
               sd_event_add_inotify(event, &source2, path2,
                                    IN_CREATE | IN_DELETE | IN_MODIFY | IN_MOVED_TO,
                                    inotify_handler, NULL);

             sd_event_loop(event);

             return 0;
           }

NOTES

       Functions described here are available as a shared library, which can be compiled against and linked to
       with the libsystemd pkg-config(1) file.

       The code described here uses getenv(3), which is declared to be not multi-thread-safe. This means that
       the code calling the functions described here must not call setenv(3) from a parallel thread. It is
       recommended to only do calls to setenv() from an early phase of the program when no other threads have
       been started.

HISTORY

       sd_event_inotify_handler_t(), sd_event_add_inotify(), and sd_event_source_get_inotify_mask() were added
       in version 239.

       sd_event_add_inotify_fd() was added in version 250.

       sd_event_source_get_inotify_path() was added in version 256.

SEE ALSO

       systemd(1), sd-event(3), sd_event_new(3), sd_event_now(3), sd_event_add_io(3), sd_event_add_time(3),
       sd_event_add_signal(3), sd_event_add_defer(3), sd_event_add_child(3), sd_event_source_set_enabled(3),
       sd_event_source_set_priority(3), sd_event_source_set_userdata(3), sd_event_source_set_description(3),
       sd_event_source_set_floating(3), waitid(2)

systemd 257.4                                                                            SD_EVENT_ADD_INOTIFY(3)