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Automatic command execution on file changes with entr (danielrotter.at)

submitted 10 months ago by danrot@kbin.social to c/linux@kbin.social

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Sometimes you want a command to be automatically executed as soon as a certain file changes. There is a small tool called entr, which helps with that.

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[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's what a systemd.path unit accomplishes, too. It watches a path, and if that file/directory changes, it starts its accompanying systemd.service.

[–] danrot@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago

Ah, you are talking about systemd, wasn't aware of that... I imagine that to be much more complicated for many use cases. E.g. running a unit test (as I describe in the article) isn't something I would use systemd for. Setting up a path and a service seems more complicated than using entr, and it is probably also harder to get to the output as well.