There isn't, by any chance, something like Inotify2 for UNIX is there?

Depends on your definition of UNIX :-)

For the BSDs there's IO::Kqueue and Solaris has the FEM API, though no Perl wrappers for that is available on CPAN AFAICT, you might be able to do something with dtrace there.If you need something that works on UNIX/POSIX in general then your best bet is to go with stat, the other mechanisms are bound to be specific to the UNIX variant. Actually, I can even dimly remember reading something about Vista including a file event notification mechanism, but I haven't had to code for that OS in years so my interest in it is peripheral at best.