WATCHFILES(1) General Commands Manual WATCHFILES(1)

watchfiles - Simple, modern and high performance file watching

watchfiles [--ignore-paths <IGNORE_PATHS>] [--target-type (command | function | auto)] [--filter <FILTER>] [--args <ARGS>] [--verbose] [--non-recursive] [--verbosity (warning | info | debug)] [--sigint-timeout <SIGINT_TIMEOUT>] [--grace-period <GRACE_PERIOD>] [--sigkill-timeout <SIGKILL_TIMEOUT>] [--ignore-permission-denied] target [paths ...]

watchfiles (-h | --help)
watchfiles (-V | --version)

watchfiles watches one or more directories and executes either a Shell command or a Python function on file changes.

target  Command or dotted function path to run
paths   Filesystem paths to watch, defaults to current directory

-h | --help


Show this help message and exit




--ignore-paths <IGNORE_PATHS>


Specify directories to ignore, to ignore multiple paths use a comma as
separator, e.g. "env" or "env,node_modules"




--target-type (command | function | auto)


Whether the target should be intercepted as a shell command or a Python
function, defaults to "auto" which infers the target type from the target
string




--filter <FILTER>


Which files to watch, defaults to "default" which uses the
"DefaultFilter", "python" uses the "PythonFilter", "all" uses no filter,
any other value is interpreted as a Python function/class path which is
imported




--args <ARGS>


Arguments to set on sys.argv before calling target function, used only if
the target is a function




--verbose


Set log level to "debug", wins over --verbosity




--non-recursive


Do not watch for changes in sub-directories recursively




--verbosity (warning | info | debug)


Log level, defaults to "info"




--sigint-timeout <SIGINT_TIMEOUT>


How long to wait for the sigint timeout before sending sigkill.




--grace-period <GRACE_PERIOD>


Number of seconds after the process is started before watching for
changes.




--sigkill-timeout <SIGKILL_TIMEOUT>


How long to wait for the sigkill timeout before issuing a timeout
exception.




--ignore-permission-denied


Ignore permission denied errors while watching files and directories.




-V | --version


Show program's version number and exit

Watching the current directory and calling a Python function:

$ watchfiles foobar.main


Watching Python files in two local directories and calling a Shell command:

$ watchfiles --filter python 'pytest --lf' src tests


Bugs can be reported to your distribution's bug tracker or upstream at https://github.com/samuelcolvin/watchfiles/issues

Louis-Philippe Véronneau

2024