method

watch

Source

/**
 * Start watching the [FileSystemEntity] for changes.
 *
 * The implementation uses platform-dependent event-based APIs for receiving
 * file-system notifications, thus behavior depends on the platform.
 *
 *   * `Windows`: Uses `ReadDirectoryChangesW`. The implementation only
 *     supports watching directories. Recursive watching is supported.
 *   * `Linux`: Uses `inotify`. The implementation supports watching both
 *     files and directories. Recursive watching is not supported.
 *     Note: When watching files directly, delete events might not happen
 *     as expected.
 *   * `OS X`: Uses `FSEvents`. The implementation supports watching both
 *     files and directories. Recursive watching is supported.
 *
 * The system will start listening for events once the returned [Stream] is
 * being listened to, not when the call to [watch] is issued.
 *
 * The returned value is an endless broadcast [Stream], that only stops when
 * one of the following happends:
 *
 *   * The [Stream] is canceled, e.g. by calling `cancel` on the
 *      [StreamSubscription].
 *   * The [FileSystemEntity] being watches, is deleted.
 *
 * Use `events` to specify what events to listen for. The constants in
 * [FileSystemEvent] can be or'ed together to mix events. Default is
 * [FileSystemEvent.ALL].
 *
 * A move event may be reported as seperate delete and create events.
 */
Stream<FileSystemEvent> watch({int events: FileSystemEvent.ALL,
                               bool recursive: false})
   => _FileSystemWatcher._watch(_trimTrailingPathSeparators(path),
                               events,
                               recursive);