A utility for running arbitrary commands when files change. Uses kqueue(2) or inotify(7) to avoid polling. entr was written to facilitate rapid feedback on the command line.

./configure
make test
make install

To see available build options run ./configure -h

Incomplete inotify support on Windows Subsystem for Linux and Docker for Mac may cause entr to respond incorrectly. Setting the environment variable ENTR_INOTIFY_WORKAROUND enables entr to operate in these environments.

On Mac OS and Linux, symlinks are not followed unless the environment variable ENTR_FOLLOW_SYMLINK is set.

Rebuild a project if source files change, limiting output to the first 20 lines:

$ find src/ | entr -s 'make | head -n 20'

Launch and auto-reload a node.js server:

$ ls *.js | entr -r node app.js

Clear the screen and run a query after the SQL script is updated:

$ echo my.sql | entr -cp psql -f /_

Rebuild project if a source file is modified or added to the src/ directory:

$ while sleep 0.1; do ls src/*.rb | entr -d make; done

Auto-reload a web server, or terminate if the server exits

$ ls * | entr -rz ./httpd

Notification of new releases are provided by an Atom feed, and release history is covered in the NEWS file.