How Can I Efficiently Monitor Specific File Changes Without Polling?

Monitoring File Changes Without Polling

In cases where you need to track changes to a specific log file in real time, it's crucial to avoid using polling techniques. A more efficient approach is to utilize file system event notifications.

Using the win32file Module

The win32file.FindNextChangeNotification function in the PyWin32 library allows you to watch for file changes. However, it doesn't directly provide the ability to monitor a specific file.

Introducing Watchdog

An alternative solution is to use the Watchdog library. It offers a cross-platform API to monitor file system events, including watching for changes to a specific file or directory.

Here's how you can use Watchdog to monitor file changes:

This script will automatically detect changes to the specified file and invoke the on_modified method with the modified filename.

Note: Using Watchdog on a mapped network drive may not work due to limitations in how Windows handles file change notifications on network volumes.

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