repython
repython is a utility to run a command and then restart it based on filesystem changes. It's useful for quickly testing changes to a running program. For instance, Django uses a similar but more sophisticated method to reload its source code when it detects a change.
repython uses the pyinotify library to make monitoring for changes efficient compared to just polling the filesystem.
Installation
Dependencies:
You can install the repython module using:
$ python setup.py install
repython is also available from the Cheeseshop:
$ pip install repython
Or using setuptools:
$ easy_install repython
Usage
Basic example:
$ python -m repython "python example.py"
This would open the command in a subprocess and recursively monitor the current working directory for any changed files matching the *.py filename pattern (default behavior).
repython is not limited to running Python programs, so a command like this should work as well:
$ python -m repython "ruby example.rb" -p "*.rb" "*.txt"
The -p or --pattern arguments determine which file changes
trigger restarting the run command.
The -d or --directory arguments allow monitoring other directories
than the current working directory. It can be used like this:
$ python -m repython "python example.py" -d . ~/example
This command would make repython recursively monitor (i.e., including
subdirectories) both the working directory and the
~/example directory.
The -v or --verbose argument can be used to get more detailed
output from repython, and the -q or --quiet argument can be used
to suppress repython output.
For more details please see:
$ python -m repython --help
Known issues
Python issue #9338 causes the
argument order to be wrong in the generated usage instructions
(shown when using the --help argument). The command argument should
come before the optional arguments for the tool to work.
