The sys admin's daily grind: iWatch
In a Minute
Recently, sys admin Charly was faced with the task of synchronizing a directory on a server with two NFS-mounted clients. He wanted the whole thing to happen quickly and to be easily manageable, which ruled out DRBD and GlusterFS.
My sync setup looks roughly like this: An application server cyclically reads values from a database, generates HTML files and some images, and dumps everything in the /source directory. I use NFS 4 to mount the /dest1 and /dest2 directories. When any new data arrives in /source, I want it to reach the two target directories /dest1 and /dest2.
Simple and Been Here for Years
Because complex solutions are out of the question, actually the only option left is to dump the task on inotify subsystem's plate. Inotify has been part of the kernel since 2.6.13 and provides an interface to filesystem events for userspace programs.
Apart from incron [1], I've hardly found a use for it so far, but it should be ideal for quick syncing of directories – or at least, these were my ideas on the matter. What was missing was the right tool for the task. Some quick research brought to light two candidates: lsyncd [2] and iWatch [3], but I'll focus on iWatch here.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.