Introduction to fsevents in Node.js

The fsevents is a native and efficient extension to the file system watching capabilities in Node.js. It helps in watching for changes in files and directories and provides a way to handle those changes in a seamless manner. This library is particularly useful on macOS as it leverages the system’s native, efficient, and reliable infrastructure.

APIs and Code Examples

Initialization

You can initialize fsevents in your Node.js application as follows:

const fsevents = require('fsevents');
const watcher = fsevents(__dirname);

watcher.start();

Listening for Changes

Once you have initialized the watcher, you can listen for changes within the directory:

watcher.on('fsevent', (path, flags, id) => {
  console.log('File event:', path, flags, id);
});

watcher.on('change', (path) => {
  console.log('File changed:', path);
});

watcher.on('created', (path) => {
 console.log('File created:', path);
});

watcher.on('deleted', (path) => {
  console.log('File deleted:', path);
});

Stopping the Watcher

To stop the watcher, use the stop method:

watcher.stop();

Example Application Using fsevents

The following is a complete example demonstrating the use of the fsevents library in a Node.js application:

const fsevents = require('fsevents');
const path = require('path');

const dir = path.join(__dirname, 'watched-directory');
const watcher = fsevents(dir);

watcher.start();

watcher.on('fsevent', (path, flags, id) => {
  console.log('File event:', path, flags, id);
});

watcher.on('change', (path) => {
  console.log('File changed:', path);
});

watcher.on('created', (path) => {
  console.log('File created:', path);
});

watcher.on('deleted', (path) => {
  console.log('File deleted:', path);
});

process.on('SIGINT', () => {
  watcher.stop();
  process.exit();
});

This simple application will monitor the specified directory and log any file changes, creations, and deletions to the console. It also gracefully stops the watcher when the application is terminated.

By making use of the fsevents library, you can create robust and efficient file watching functionalities in your Node.js applications, especially on macOS.

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