hi all,

i have a folder on my linux server and i have created a new folder on the same linux server so its like this -

old folder - /mnt/ceta_invoices_2

new folder - /mnt/ceta_invoices_3

i want to be able to watch anything new that goes in " /mnt/ceta_invoices_2" to go straight away ie copy to "/mnt/ceta_invoices_3"

is it best to set up an rsync on a crontab for this or use the inotifywait command?

many thanks,

rob

If you want it to get moved straight away then incrontab is the best way to do it and I'd suggest using IN_CLOSE_WRITE so something like:

Good reference material here: https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/...s-with-incron/ which despite the title isn't Debian specific.

inotify was designed for this purpose. You'd have to write a shell script with a while loop running forever. And start this script at system boot. It is quite efficient as a process in wait state does not consume any processor cycles. Once you get the signal you can perform an rsync action. Because you are watching a directory but you don't know which file has changed. That is for rsync to find out and handle.

The inotify man page provides useful examples.

OTOH if you call rsync from cron you have some time between the creation of the file and sync action. Moreover, rsync use is not free. It takes processor and disk cycles. If you run it very frequently (every 5 minutes or so) and your directory contains many files it is inefficient. But calling rsync from cron is quite simple.

So it boils down to simplicity vs. efficiency. (as usual)

jlinkels

@TenTenths: darn, you posted while I still was writing. Your solution seems to be quite adequate. To bad I did not see it before I started answering!

jlinkels

i dont want to move it i want to copy the data, can it do it

ok i have edited incrontab, my incrontab looks like this -

[root@script ~]# incrontab -l
/source/ IN_CREATE,IN_DELETE,IN_CLOSE_WRITE /usr/bin/rsync /dest/
[root@script ~]# ls /source/
qwerty qwerty.csv
[root@script ~]# ls /dest/
[root@script ~]#

can anyone suggest why it isnt working as it should rsync stuff in source to dest?

You're not specifying a source for your rsync command.
If you use IN_CREATE then the event will "fire" when the file is created, before data has finished writing to it so may have unpredictable results. You also never originally mentioned anything about deletion.

Try:

thanks tentenths, i will try this and get back to you

ok looks like this now -

[root@script ~]# incrontab -l
/source IN_CLOSE_WRITE cp -r $@/$# /dest/$#
/source IN_DELETE rm -f /dest/$#
[root@script ~]# ls /source
qwerty qwerty.csv
[root@script ~]#

you can see i have a file/folder in source but when i ls /dest/ i see nothing in there, i was hoping to see whats in my source

oh wow, it works, didnt copy the files/folders previously in there but when i touch a file now it copies it straight to dest folder

how do i get the previous files/folders copied in there aswell

i have noticed it copies files only not folders, how do i get it to do folders aswell

if those files were there before you set up the incrontab entries then they wouldnt have triggered the relevant event so your jobs wouldnt get activated.

You'd have to write something to the files to set off the in_close_write

Folders are different, they have to be set up individually

mmm... it doesnt delete from dest the files when i delete the original in source

ive sused it, i can only write one incrontab at a time so if i do this

/source IN_CLOSE_WRITE cp -r $@/$# /dest/$#

or this

/source IN_DELETE rm -f $@/$# /dest/$#

it works but when i do this -

/source IN_CLOSE_WRITE cp -r $@/$# /dest/$#
/source IN_DELETE rm -f $@/$# /dest/$#


it doesnt work

any help please

thanks

Ok, so if you look at the tutorial I linked to you should be able to work out how to run a script and pass both the "actions" by either word or number

Textually is $%


So you could have something like

Then in your script $1 is the source folder, $2 is the file, and $3 is the action so you could:

If that doesn't give you enough of a clue as to how to proceed then let me know and I'll look at it in more detail in the morning when I'm actually at a machine.