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.

  • @Chais
    link
    17 months ago

    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.

    • danrotOP
      link
      fedilink
      17 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.