.. include:: global.rst.inc

.. _installation:

Installation
============
|project_name| requires 3.9+ to work. See a list of :ref:`installation-dependencies`.

Installing from PyPI using pip
------------------------------

.. parsed-literal::

    $ python -m pip install -U |project_name|

    # or to install the watchmedo utility:
    $ python -m pip install -U '|project_name|\[watchmedo]'

Installing from source tarballs
-------------------------------

.. parsed-literal::

    $ wget -c https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/w/watchdog/watchdog-|project_version|.tar.gz
    $ tar zxvf |project_name|-|project_version|.tar.gz
    $ cd |project_name|-|project_version|
    $ python -m pip install -e .

    # or to install the watchmedo utility:
    $ python -m pip install -e '.[watchmedo]'

Installing from the code repository
-----------------------------------

::

    $ git clone --recursive git://github.com/gorakhargosh/watchdog.git
    $ cd watchdog
    $ python -m pip install -e .

    # or to install the watchmedo utility:
    $ python -m pip install -e '.[watchmedo]'

.. _installation-dependencies:

Dependencies
------------

|project_name| depends on many libraries to do its job. The following is
a list of dependencies you need based on the operating system you are
using.

+---------------------+-------------+-------------+--------+-------------+
| Operating system    |   Windows   |  Linux 2.6  | macOS  |     BSD     |
| Dependency (row)    |             |             | Darwin |             |
+=====================+=============+=============+========+=============+
| XCode_              |             |             |  Yes   |             |
+---------------------+-------------+-------------+--------+-------------+

The following is a list of dependencies you need based on the operating system you are
using the ``watchmedo`` utility.

+---------------------+-------------+-------------+--------+-------------+
| Operating system    |   Windows   |  Linux 2.6  | macOS  |     BSD     |
| Dependency (row)    |             |             | Darwin |             |
+=====================+=============+=============+========+=============+
| PyYAML_             |     Yes     |     Yes     |  Yes   |     Yes     |
+---------------------+-------------+-------------+--------+-------------+

Supported Platforms (and Caveats)
---------------------------------
|project_name| uses native APIs as much as possible falling back
to polling the disk periodically to compare directory snapshots
only when it cannot use an API natively-provided by the underlying
operating system. The following operating systems are currently
supported:

.. WARNING:: Differences between behaviors of these native API
             are noted below.

Linux 2.6+
    Linux kernel version 2.6 and later come with an API called inotify_
    that programs can use to monitor file system events.

    .. NOTE:: On most systems the maximum number of watches that can be
              created per user is limited to ``8192``. |project_name| needs one
              per directory to monitor. To change this limit, edit
              ``/etc/sysctl.conf`` and add::

                  fs.inotify.max_user_watches=16384

macOS
    The Darwin kernel/OS X API maintains two ways to monitor directories
    for file system events:

    * kqueue_
    * FSEvents_

    |project_name| can use whichever one is available, preferring
    FSEvents over ``kqueue(2)``. ``kqueue(2)`` uses open file descriptors for monitoring
    and the current implementation uses
    `macOS File System Monitoring Performance Guidelines`_ to open
    these file descriptors only to monitor events, thus allowing
    OS X to unmount volumes that are being watched without locking them.

    .. NOTE:: More information about how |project_name| uses ``kqueue(2)`` is noted
              in `BSD Unix variants`_. Much of this information applies to
              macOS as well.

_`BSD Unix variants`
    BSD variants come with kqueue_ which programs can use to monitor
    changes to open file descriptors. Because of the way ``kqueue(2)`` works,
    |project_name| needs to open these files and directories in read-only
    non-blocking mode and keep books about them.

    |project_name| will automatically open file descriptors for all
    new files/directories created and close those for which are deleted.

    .. NOTE:: The maximum number of open file descriptor per process limit
              on your operating system can hinder |project_name|'s ability to
              monitor files.

              You should ensure this limit is set to at least **1024**
              (or a value suitable to your usage). The following command
              appended to your ``~/.profile`` configuration file does
              this for you::

                  ulimit -n 1024

Windows Vista and later
    The Windows API provides the ReadDirectoryChangesW_. |project_name|
    currently contains implementation for a synchronous approach requiring
    additional API functionality only available in Windows Vista and later.

    .. NOTE:: Since renaming is not the same operation as movement
              on Windows, |project_name| tries hard to convert renames to
              movement events. Also, because the ReadDirectoryChangesW_
              API function returns rename/movement events for directories
              even before the underlying I/O is complete, |project_name|
              may not be able to completely scan the moved directory
              in order to successfully queue movement events for
              files and directories within it.

    .. NOTE:: Since the Windows API does not provide information about whether
              an object is a file or a directory, delete events for directories
              may be reported as a file deleted event.

OS Independent Polling
    |project_name| also includes a fallback-implementation that polls
    watched directories for changes by periodically comparing snapshots
    of the directory tree.