I have a directory that our applications are continuely generate new file to it , some files hv a word "error" in content , I would like to find out which file hv this word and send me notify mail to inform me which file hv this word , currently , I have a stupid script to grep the word , the script hv scheduled to run in every 2 hours , it works fine but I worry that if the system is shutting down while the cron job is time to run , then the error checking would be missed in this two hours, this would cause senior problem , furthermore , I am not sure if the checking is correct while the file is generating at the same time , can advise what is the best method , is there any method to check the directory instantly ? if possible , can provide the script ?

Thx in advance.

I reckon you could modify the shutdown (runlevel 0) / reboot (runlevel 6) scripts to run the same command cron is executing every two hours BEFORE the script starts shutting down the machine. I can't guarantee that it will work but I guess it's worth a try. Since you didn't feel like telling us the name of the distro you're using, you'll have to find those scripts yourself.

I'm not 100% sure I understood your problem correctly, though..