WSL - A Bash line to show when a folder's contents update

Solution 1:

You can use inotify-tools

To install it, run the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt install inotify-tools

To use it to serve your purpose, please follow these steps:

1. Create and edit a script file in your home directory by running the following command in the terminal:

   nano ~/File_Monitor.sh

2. Copy and paste the following code into the editor replacing PATH_TO_DIRECTORY with the full path of the directory you want to monitor:

#!/bin/bash
inotifywait -m PATH_TO_DIRECTORY -e create |
    while read path action file;
        do
                echo "$path$file was created"
                mv "$path$file" "$path$file.png"
                echo "and renamed to $path$file.png"
        done

3. Save the script file and exit the editor by pressing Ctrl + X then press Y.

4. Make the script file executable by running the following command in the terminal:

   chmod +x ~/File_Monitor.sh

5. Run the script by running the following command in the terminal:

   bash ~/File_Monitor.sh

Done, all new files added to the monitored directory will be renamed to Original_File_Name.png.

Notice:

If you cannot get inotify-tools installed for any reason, you can replace the code in step 2 with the following code also changing PATH_TO_DIRECTORY with the full path of the directory you want to monitor:

#!/bin/bash

while true
do
       sleep 1
       find PATH_TO_DIRECTORY -type f ! -name "*.*" -exec mv {} {}.png \;
done

It will get the job done.