608251 - Provide interface for file system updates

Status: NEW

(NSPR :: NSPR, defect)

Description

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

I could swear I filed a bug on this a couple years ago, but I can't find it now...

I'm under the impression that when the operating system updates a file (creation, edit, delete, etc.), there's a mechanism for notifying other programs of the change.  For example, if I call from a command-line prompt:

mkdir newdir

Somehow the GUI automatically shows me a new directory named "newdir" was created, without me refreshing the window.  I'm trying to figure out how, so that I can bring that instant-update capability into XPCOM land (so I can find out about it from chrome JS).

I consider this related to bug 421029.

Comment 1

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8478 provides an introduction to inotify for Linux.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365261%28VS.85%29.aspx talks about change notifications for files and directories on Windows.

Comment 2

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/FSEvents_ProgGuide/ talks about Mac's equivalent, for OS X 10.5 and later.

Comment 3

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

Attachment: stub-in-progress, Linux, fails in linking libxul

../../staticlib/libxpcom_core.a(nsFileUpdateNotifierLinux.o): In function `nsFileUpdateNotifier::Initialize(nsILocalFile*, int)':
/home/ajvincent/filestatus/mozilla/xpcom/io/nsFileUpdateNotifierLinux.cpp:84: undefined reference to `inotify_init'
/home/ajvincent/filestatus/mozilla/xpcom/io/nsFileUpdateNotifierLinux.cpp:101: undefined reference to `inotify_add_watch'
/home/ajvincent/filestatus/mozilla/xpcom/io/nsFileUpdateNotifierLinux.cpp:109: undefined reference to `inotify_add_watch'
/usr/bin/ld: libxul.so: hidden symbol `inotify_add_watch' isn't defined
/usr/bin/ld: final link failed: Nonrepresentable section on output

I'd really love some help figuring out how to fix this.

Comment 4

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

I *did* file a bug on this before, bug 403943, which was duped to bug 403436.

Comment 5

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug assignee is inactive on Bugzilla, so the assignee is being reset.