How To Install fswatch on Debian 11

In this tutorial we learn how to install fswatch on Debian 11. fswatch is file change monitor based on inotify

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install fswatch on Debian 11.

What is fswatch

fswatch is:

fswatch is a file change monitor that receives notifications when the contents of the specified files or directories are modified. fswatch implements the following kinds of monitors:

  • A monitor based on the File System Events API of Apple OS X.
  • A monitor based on kqueue, an event notification interface introduced in FreeBSD 4.1 and supported on most *BSD systems (including OS X).
  • A monitor based on inotify, a Linux kernel subsystem that reports file system changes to applications.
  • A monitor based on File Events Notification, a Solaris/Illumos kernel API that reports file events.
  • A monitor which periodically stats the file system, saves file modification times in memory and manually calculates file system changes, which can work on any operating system where stat (2) can be used.

fswatch should build and work correctly on any system shipping either of the aforementioned APIs

There are three methods to install fswatch on Debian 11. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install fswatch Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install fswatch using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install fswatch

Install fswatch Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install fswatch using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install fswatch

Install fswatch Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install fswatch using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install fswatch

How To Uninstall fswatch on Debian 11

To uninstall only the fswatch package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove fswatch

Uninstall fswatch And Its Dependencies

To uninstall fswatch and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 11, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove fswatch

Remove fswatch Configurations and Data

To remove fswatch configuration and data from Debian 11 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge fswatch

Remove fswatch configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove fswatch configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge fswatch

Dependencies

fswatch have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install fswatch package on Debian 11 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.