Re: Using glib's g_file_monitor_file and g_file_monitor_directory

[Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de>]

James Cloos <cloos@jhcloos.com> writes:

> SM> AFAIK Emacs almost always links to glib indirectly nowadays, so it
> SM> would probably be OK to replace the inotify version with the glib
> SM> version.
>
> Please don't.  Not every box where emacs is used runs x11, and glib
> should not be a forced dependency.  Inotify(7) support is welcome
> even on headless systems.

It shall be configurable. Glib's implementation might the primary
choice, pure inotify the second choice, and none of them the third
one. Except systems which use w32notify, of course.

I'll try to prepare a patch before my vacations (starting later in
April).

I will also think about a unified Lisp interface for the different file
notification implementations. During the discussion last autumn, there
was a proposal (by Oscar? by Eli?) to distinguish between "file contents
changes" and "file metadata changes". This sounds to me like a good
starting point, abstracting from the different events raised by those
notification packages.

And of course, respective file name handlers and there needs shall not
be forgotten.

> -JimC

Best regards, Michael.