POWfs Files

General Information
===================

POWfs (Process On Write filesystem) is an extension to the FUSE core
that allows the user to execute user-defined commands immediately after a 
file is written to disk.

You can download the source code releases from

  http://sourceforge.net/projects/powfs/

or alternatively you can use Subversion to get the very latest development
version:

  svn checkout https://powfs.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/powfs/trunk


Dependencies
============

FUSE core libraries and headers are needed.

Installation
============

./configure
make
make install

You may also need to add '/usr/local/lib' to '/etc/ld.so.conf' and/or
run ldconfig.

For more details see the file 'INSTALL'

How To Use
==========

 - Create a .powfs file in your home directory and create hidden file
     entries and directory handlers as described below.


Hidden Files
============

 - For each file you would like to hide from the mount, create an entry
     in .powfs in the following format using the real path:
   
hidden.0=/etc/passwd
hidden.1=/home/user/.powfs
 
 - Be sure to use consecutive indexes.


Directory Handlers
==================

 - For each directory you would like to handle, create an entry in .powfs
     in the following format using real paths.

handler.dir.0=/tmp
handler.prg.0=/home/username/bin/script.sh
handler.dir.1=/etc
handler.prg.1=/usr/local/bin/anotherprog

  - This would set up two handlers.
      /home/username/bin/script.sh would execute immediately after each file 
      is written to the /tmp/ directory.  It will pass the program a single 
      argument of the real path to the full filename.

      /usr/local/bin/anotherprog would execute any time a file in the /etc
      directory were executed.

Lets say that /home/username/bin/script.sh had the following data
#!/bin/sh
mail -s "Updated file" root@localhost $1

With the configuration above, here is an example run.
cd src
./powfs mountpoint
touch mountpoint/tmp/blah

This would send an email to root saying that the file /tmp/blah has been
modified.  Keep in mind that the mountpoint is simply a virtual mirror of
the root filesystem.  This means that files must be modified through
"mountpoint" to trigger the handler.

Possible Uses
=============

 - Be alerted immediately after anything in the /etc folder is modified
 - Process raw data files in realtime immediately after receipt.
 - Write files locally and move them to an archived network share when the 
     file is closed.
 - Be notified by email each time a file is finished uploading to your FTP 
     directory.
 - Verify that an automated report is complete immediately after it finishes
 - Automatically upload a new revision of a file to a remote computer each 
     time the file is saved.

Reporting bugs
==============

Please send bug reports to the <powfs-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>
mailing list.

The list is open, you need not be subscribed to post.