This reminded me of something I've been meaning to play with in the linux kernel:

CONFIG_IMON:

This enables support for imon, the inode monitor. Through imon and fam, the File Alteration Monitor, programs can express interest in individual files and directories, and the kernel will notify those programs when the files change. This enables desktops, mail readers, administration tools, etc. to respond to changes in the system immediately. If you don't enable imon, such programs will have to poll files (by checking them every few seconds) to determine whether they've changed.

See http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/ for more information on imon.

If you don't know whether you want imon, it doesn't do any harm to say N here. (If you want imon, say M, not Y.)

This option lives under 'File Systems' and is called 'Inode Monitor Support'. If this file processing is important enough this may help you - assuming you are on linux...