Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!dftsrv!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: how do you watch for an incoming file
Summary: use fstat if possible
Keywords: file directory unix
Message-ID: <21010@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 29 Nov 89 21:50:10 GMT
References: <5506@hplabsb.HP.COM> <1989Nov29.042955.8217@virtech.uucp>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 21

In article <1989Nov29.042955.8217@virtech.uucp> cpcahil@virtech.uucp
(Conor P. Cahill) writes:
>	forever loop
		...
>		stat(dir,to get current dir mtime var)

If you open the directory, and use fstat on the resulting descriptor,
you will accumulate less system time.  Unfortunately, it seems that some
Unix systems refuse to let you open a directory these days, so you
would need something like

	fd = open(dir, 0);
	forever loop ...
		result = fd >= 0 ? fstat(fd, &st) : stat(dir, &st);
		if (result < 0)
			er ror er ror ster ril lize

(no points for remembering the source of the `er ror' line :-) )
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@cs.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris