RSYNC + iNotify

[Dag Wieers]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006, Ryan Kather wrote:

> I'm looking for a way to continually monitor at least one but possibly 
> multiple directories (and/or individual files).  I would like RSYNC to 
> immediately synchronize the changes to said directory(ies) after they 
> occur.  I believe the best approach for this would be to utilize iNotify 
> enabled kernels and create a plugin for the RSYNC daemon.

> However, before I begin the task of actually writing some code (with my 
> poor abilities), I thought I would inquire if anyone else has already 
> created this or something similar?  Am I over thinking this, or is there 
> a better approach?  Is there a reason not to do this?  

I'm very interested in functionality like this. I remember it being 
brought up on this list before so I would look for similar mails in the 
archive for clues.

How to do it efficiently (eg. for files in transit/still open), I don't 
know. Also it seems to me that you may want a seperate daemon that 
implements the rsync protocol itself (instead of relaying on an external 
tool) as that allows you to optimize certain things and have less 
overhead.

I'm most interested in writing this in python, using a python-rsync 
implementation and python-inotify.

Kind regards,
--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]