WatchDog

WatchDog - Watch Library

Introduction

WatchDog is a simple file monitoring utility built using Python and the watchdog library. It watches a specified folder (configurable, defaults to Downloads) for new or modified files whose names end with a configurable pattern (defaults to -watchdog before the file extension). When such files are detected, they are automatically moved to a target folder (configurable, defaults to Documents/watchdog_files).

Features

• Monitors a folder for file creation, modification, or movement.
• Automatically moves files ending with a configurable pattern to a specified directory.
• Uses Python's shutil library to move files efficiently and safely.
• Easy to configure source and target folders.
• Cross-platform path handling using os.path.expanduser.
• Handles file conflicts by automatically renaming duplicates.
• Comprehensive error handling for permissions and OS errors.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• watchdog library

Install dependencies with:

pip install watchdog

Usage

1. Edit main.py to set your desired FILE_PATTERN, watch_folder and target_folder paths if needed.
2. Run the script:

python main.py

1. The script will keep running, watching for files. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Customization

• Change the FILE_PATTERN variable to match your desired filename suffix (without the hyphen).
• Change the watch_folder and target_folder variables in main.py to suit your needs.
• The script only moves files whose names end with the configured pattern (defaults to -watchdog before the extension).

How it works

• The script uses the watchdog library to monitor file system events in the specified folder.
• When a file event is detected, it checks if the filename ends with the configured pattern.
• If it matches, the script uses Python's shutil.move() function to move the file to the target directory.
• If a file with the same name already exists, it automatically appends a counter to avoid conflicts.

Configuration Examples

• To watch for files ending with -myfiles: Set FILE_PATTERN = "myfiles"
• To use a different watch folder: Set watch_folder = os.path.expanduser("~/Desktop")
• To use a different target folder: Set target_folder = os.path.expanduser("~/Documents/my_sorted_files")

License

This project is for personal use and learning purposes.