externals

Randall Lee Reetz randall at randallreetz.com
Thu Jan 22 13:14:22 EST 2009


So, it appears that most OS's now have mechanisms for real time  
publishing of files system events in real time.  The platform of  
interest to me is the Mac... OS X is evolving a set of protocols and  
tools to deal with this opportunity.  Specifically, a low level event  
publisher called fslogger and a systems level accumulative log file  
called "" which attempts to archive these events as they are  
published.  In the old pre-log scheme, apps and processes needing to  
react to file system changes would subscribe directly to receive  
fsEvents fire-hose of data.  Spotlight, Apple's user level disk  
directory index and search system, is the primary official subscriber  
to this data stream.  Receiving the fslogger data is one thing, then  
the subscriber code must parse the stream and filter it for domain  
specific events.  But the real potential for problems come to play if  
the subscriber intends to actively react to file system events  
through functions that cause other file system events.  If your code  
intends to move a file or create an alias of a file each time one is  
created or moved, and this file system events will trigger yet more  
reactive events, It should be obvious that undue recursion will arise  
and will need therefore to be dealt with proactively before the  
resulting feedback loop gets out of control.  Specifically, any  
process or app that intends to react to file system events through  
the creation of other file system events will need to actively track  
those events its own code causes and filter these events from the cue  
of events it reacts to.

Still, the mechanisms appear to exist for real time tracking of file  
system events as they occur.  I downloaded an app called fsEventer  
which provides a visual representation of file system events as they  
happen.  I wrote a stack that created a hundred text files within a  
folder and tested the performance with fsEventer running and then  
without.  With fsEventer app running, file system events were almost  
two and a half times slower.  Of course, this only shows how a real  
time graphical display of file system events will slow down file  
system I/O... which is to be expected.  Both tests were run while the  
file system event API running... it is always running!

What I am still not able to understand, and this probably has more to  
do with the fact that I am more an interface and interaction designer  
than a deep systems-level programmer, is how to send xtalk events  to  
xtalk clients (projects, stacks, and standalones).  What is the intra- 
application communication protocol that would allow for the sending  
of xtalk messages to xtalk clients?  Another tack would be to write a  
stack that subscribed directly to the API that sflogger subscribes  
to.  Any ideas?  Anyone willing to attempt this code as an external?

Randall


On Jan 22, 2009, at 2:03 AM, Luis wrote:

> Hiya,
>
> Google glasses on:
>
> http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060817044149264
>
> http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-ubuntu- 
> inotify/     (OS X is in there too)
>
> http://developer.apple.com/mac/articles/cocoa/ 
> filesystemevents.html     (DIY)
>
> http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/     (FAM: Check the Links page)
> http://www.gnome.org/~veillard/gamin/     (FAM subset)
>
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx      
> (I'm assuming this has command line options too)
>
> And then writing a Rev front end to these command line tools?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Luis.
>
>
> On 21 Jan 2009, at 17:46, Randall Reetz wrote:
>
>> Defeats the purpose (real time, and universal)!
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "viktoras d." <viktoras at ekoinf.net>
>> To: "How to use Revolution" <use-revolution at lists.runrev.com>
>> Sent: 1/21/2009 2:27 AM
>> Subject: Re: externals
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> why not instead let user choose folders or files that should be
>> monitored and then monitor these by comparing files (get files  
>> etc...),
>> folders (get folders) regularly. Use recursion to get into sub  
>> folders,
>> etc. Revolution is fast enough to do this efficiently.
>>
>> Best wishes
>> Viktoras
>>>
>>> I am asking for outside help here.  An intermediate application  
>>> that would launch at startup and listen to the flile system event  
>>> loop... Waiting for user defined events and sending them out to  
>>> my reactor app. (or any other stack or app so inclined).
>>>
>>> I dont write binding code... Just xtalk... So i am dependent on  
>>> that other dark art called "the nerd" for deep access to system  
>>> processing.
>>> Randall
>>>
>>
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