Not to be confused with Facebook’s file watch daemon, also names watchman, which does the same sort of thing but is more complicated. There’s a bunch of tools that integrate Facebook’s watchman for more efficient change tracking.
Advantages of Facebook’s watchman:
1. Implements efficient file system event watches on macOS and Windows
2. IPC/daemon system reduces resource use because overlapping watches/triggers don’t use more inotify slots.
3. Denounces / waits for changes to settle
4. Client libraries in a few different languages for scripting purposes
use facebook's watchman to watch changes to the source for OPs watchman to commit changes to the source of facebook's watchman to commit changes to OP's
Also not to be confused with watchdog and it's command watchmedo, which is what I thought this was when I first read the headline. I don't know what the differences are, but I use watchdog to restart my local celery workers when I make changes. It's scripted out so I don't ever use the command directly.
EDIT:
Now I'm wondering how often I miss out on something because I confuse it for something I already use. Maybe there is room for a "things I use" or "things I know about" browser plugin.
Also to note "watchdog" the term. Is used also in hardware/software context. Usually as a way to mitgate or recover system faulate.
I first I heard of this term while taking in a course about PIC microcontroller[1].
> The Watchdog Timer in the PIC16F819
The watchdog timer can be a real source of pain and can also make a PIC system incredibly robust and reliable. But what exactly is the watchdog timer? Simply put, the watchdog timer is a hardware timer in the PIC that, if not constantly reset by the software, will cause the PIC to reset. This feature can be incredibly useful if the PIC should hang due to a hardware or software issue and guarantees that the PIC will restart from the beginning. Not only does it reset the system, it also flags a bit that can be used to determine if the system just crashed.
Advantages of Facebook’s watchman:
1. Implements efficient file system event watches on macOS and Windows
2. IPC/daemon system reduces resource use because overlapping watches/triggers don’t use more inotify slots.
3. Denounces / waits for changes to settle
4. Client libraries in a few different languages for scripting purposes
https://facebook.github.io/watchman/