Re: How to do a blocking readdir or similar

POSIX doesn't provide such a hook, so most unix-like systems also don't have such a hook. Your solution of polling is probably the best portable solution.

However, if you're smart enough with AppleScript, you can attach an applescript action to a folder drop, which can then launch your Perl program. I'm not that smart, or I'd point you at a ready solution.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

Comment on Re: How to do a blocking readdir or similar

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: How to do a blocking readdir or similar by saintmike (Vicar) on Dec 19, 2005 at 04:08 UTC
POSIX doesn't provide such a hook, so most unix-like systems also don't have such a hook Actually, Linux provides such a hook. Check out SGI::FAM for using the file alteration monitor based on dnotify or Linux::Inotify2 for newer kernels.	[reply]
Re^3: How to do a blocking readdir or similar by Kanji (Parson) on Dec 19, 2005 at 06:25 UTC
OS X (which the OP was using) shares more with FreeBSD than Linux, so IO::KQueue is probably a more appropriate choice. From the README... This module is a low level interface to the FreeBSD and Mac OS X kqueue() system call. This is basically equivalent to epoll() on Linux - a high performance poll() replacement. --k.	[reply]
Re^3: How to do a blocking readdir or similar by james2vegas (Chaplain) on Aug 24, 2009 at 07:38 UTC
SGI::FAM seems like a more compatible and less linux-only solution, and fam should run on Mac Os X (and BSDs of all stripes really, as it can be compiled to run with kqueue Update: Maybe that is not such a good recommendation, SGI::FAM depends on deprecated File::PathConvert, has an unregistered dependency on Test::Helper and doesn't find my libfam without help. After that, it does seem to work, though, quite well, though only on famd started as a daemon, not running through inetd.	[reply]
Re^2: How to do a blocking readdir or similar by GrandFather (Saint) on Dec 19, 2005 at 03:27 UTC
That's not smartness, just knowledge. :) DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel	[reply]
Re^2: How to do a blocking readdir or similar by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Dec 19, 2005 at 13:26 UTC
I describe the Mac side of the process in Automatically Import Images into iPhoto. To launch a Perl script, just call it from the AppleScript that the folder action wants. It sounds like the poster will have an annoying little synchronization problem though: the AppleScript creates a semaphore somehow, and the sleeping, blocking script has to check for that. Perhaps the two scripts could talk to each other in some other way, though. -- brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com> Subscribe to The Perl Review	[reply]