Watchman
Watches files for changes and triggers actions or reports when they happen.
- Stars
- 13.8k
- Forks
- 1.1k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- C++
- Last update
- 4 days ago
- Type
- Dev tool
What it is
Watchman is a file-watching service that monitors directories and notices when files are created, changed, or deleted. It can then run an action or report the change to a program that asked for it. The README provided was empty, so this description relies mainly on the repository's short summary.
- Trigger a rebuild or test run when a file in a project is saved
- Keep a tool's view of a project's files up to date without rescanning everything
- Log which files changed in a directory over time
Great for
- Developers who want to run a build or test when source files change
- Teams whose tools need fast, reliable notifications about file changes
- Developers working in large codebases where repeatedly scanning directories is slow
Not ideal for
- People who only need a simple one-off file search (the tool is built for ongoing watching)
- Users who need a point-and-click app (the README provided did not describe a graphical interface)
- Anyone needing detailed setup guidance from this entry alone, since the README was unavailable
How to get it
- 1
Clone and build from source
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/meta/watchman - 2
Run it
- Read the project homepage at https://facebook.github.io/watchman/ for setup instructions
- Build the project from the cloned source following the repository's own instructions
- Start a watch on a directory and confirm it reports changes
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Check the official homepage for documented configuration options
- Review the release notes for the latest version before building
Downloads
Strengths
- Written in C++ and maintained under the Meta organization on GitHub
- Released under the permissive MIT license
- Has a large community following, with about 13,700 stars
Trade-offs
- The README was not available for this analysis, so setup and feature details are unverified
- No binaries are listed with the latest release, so you will likely need to build it yourself
- Topics and detailed documentation were not provided in the metadata
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.