1incrontab(5)                 incron documentation                 incrontab(5)
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NAME

6       incrontab - tables for driving inotify cron (incron)
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DESCRIPTION

9       An incrontab file contains instructions to the incrond(8) daemon of the
10       general form: "run this command on these file events".  There  are  two
11       categories  of  tables:  system  tables (with root privileges) and user
12       tables (with user privileges).
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14       System tables are (by default) located in /etc/incron.d  and  may  have
15       any  names. Each system table exists separately inside incron and their
16       watches never collide.
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18       Each user has their own table, and commands in any given incrontab will
19       be  executed  as the user who owns the incrontab. System users (such as
20       apache, postfix, nobody etc.) may have their own incrontab.
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22       incrontab files are read when the incrond(8) daemon  starts  and  after
23       any change (incrontab file are being hooked when incrond is running).
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25       Blank lines are ignored. The general line format is the following:
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27       <path> <mask> <command>
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29       Where  path  is  an absolute filesystem path, mask is an event mask (in
30       symbolic or numeric form) and command  is  an  executable  file  (or  a
31       script) with its arguments. See bellow for event mask symbols. The exe‐
32       cutable file may be noted as an absolute  path  or  only  as  the  name
33       itself (PATH locations are examined).
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35       Please  remember that the same path may occur only once per table (oth‐
36       erwise only the first occurrence takes effect and an error  message  is
37       emitted to the system log).
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EVENT SYMBOLS

40       These basic event mask symbols are defined:
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42       IN_ACCESS           File was accessed (read) (*)
43       IN_ATTRIB           Metadata changed (permissions, timestamps, extended
44       attributes, etc.) (*)
45       IN_CLOSE_WRITE      File opened for writing was closed (*)
46       IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE    File not opened for writing was closed (*)
47       IN_CREATE           File/directory created in watched directory (*)
48       IN_DELETE           File/directory deleted from watched directory (*)
49       IN_DELETE_SELF           Watched file/directory was itself deleted
50       IN_MODIFY           File was modified (*)
51       IN_MOVE_SELF        Watched file/directory was itself moved
52       IN_MOVED_FROM       File moved out of watched directory (*)
53       IN_MOVED_TO         File moved into watched directory (*)
54       IN_OPEN             File was opened (*)
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56       When monitoring a directory, the events marked  with  an  asterisk  (*)
57       above  can  occur  for  files  in the directory, in which case the name
58       field in the returned event data identifies the name of the file within
59       the directory.
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61       The  IN_ALL_EVENTS  symbol is defined as a bit mask of all of the above
62       events. Two additional convenience symbols are IN_MOVE, which is a com‐
63       bination  of IN_MOVED_FROM and IN_MOVED_TO, and IN_CLOSE which combines
64       IN_CLOSE_WRITE and IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE.
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66       The following further symbols can be specified in the mask:
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68       IN_DONT_FOLLOW      Don't dereference pathname if it is a symbolic link
69       IN_ONESHOT          Monitor pathname for only one event
70       IN_ONLYDIR          Only watch pathname if it is a directory
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72       Additionaly, there is a symbol which doesn't appear in the inotify sym‐
73       bol set. It it IN_NO_LOOP. This symbol disables monitoring events until
74       the current one is completely handled (until its child process exits).
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WILDCARDS

78       The following wildards may be used inside command specification:
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80       $$   dollar sign
81       $@   watched filesystem path (see above)
82       $#   event-related file name
83       $%   event flags (textually)
84       $&   event flags (numerically)
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EXAMPLE

88       These are some example rules which can be used in an incrontab file:
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90       /tmp IN_ALL_EVENTS abcd $@/$# $%
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92       /usr/bin IN_ACCESS,IN_NO_LOOP abcd $#
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94       /home IN_CREATE /usr/local/bin/abcd $#
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96       /var/log 12 abcd $@/$#
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98       The first line monitors all events on the /tmp directory. When an event
99       occurs  it  runs  a application called 'abcd' with the full path of the
100       file as the first arguments and the event flags as the second one.
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102       The second line monitors accesses (readings) on the /usr/bin directory.
103       The  application  'abcd'  is run as a handler and the appropriate event
104       watch is disabled until the program finishes. The  file  name  (without
105       the directory path) is passed in as an argument.
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107       The  third example is used for monitoring the /home directory for newly
108       create files or directories (it practically means an event is sent when
109       a new user is added). This event is processed by a program specified by
110       an absolute path.
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112       And the final line shows how to use numeric event mask instead of  tex‐
113       tual one. The value 12 is exactly the same as IN_ATTRIB,IN_CLOSE_WRITE.
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SEE ALSO

117       incrond(8), incrontab(1), incron.conf(5)
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AUTHOR

120       Lukas    Jelinek    <lukas@aiken.cz>    (please    report    bugs    to
121       http://bts.aiken.cz or <bugs@aiken.cz>).
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COPYING

124       This program is free software. It can  be  used,  redistributed  and/or
125       modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2.
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129Lukas Jelinek                        0.5.9                        incrontab(5)
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