I have doen similar things in perl, but instead i used fam to communicate whats up with file and directory changes.

There just happens to be a handy perl module for interfacing to fam here: SGI-FAM

From the man page:

       fam  is a server that tracks changes to the filesystem and
       relays these changes to interested applications.  Applica-
       tions  such as fm(1G) and mailbox(1) present an up-to-date
       view of the filesystem.  In  the  absence  of  fam,  these
       applications  and  others like them are forced to poll the
       filesystem to detect changes.  fam is more efficient.

       Applications can request  fam  to  monitor  any  files  or
       directories  in  any filesystem.  When fam detects changes
       to monitored files, it notifies the  appropriate  applica-
       tion.
[download]

definatly less of a burden on your box ;)

DOH! didn't see that this was on win32

An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
- Albert Camus