Can I watch for single file change with WatchService (not the whole directory)?

Solution 1:

Just filter the events for the file you want in the directory:

final Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath(System.getProperty("user.home"), "Desktop");
System.out.println(path);
try (final WatchService watchService = FileSystems.getDefault().newWatchService()) {
    final WatchKey watchKey = path.register(watchService, StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_MODIFY);
    while (true) {
        final WatchKey wk = watchService.take();
        for (WatchEvent<?> event : wk.pollEvents()) {
            //we only register "ENTRY_MODIFY" so the context is always a Path.
            final Path changed = (Path) event.context();
            System.out.println(changed);
            if (changed.endsWith("myFile.txt")) {
                System.out.println("My file has changed");
            }
        }
        // reset the key
        boolean valid = wk.reset();
        if (!valid) {
            System.out.println("Key has been unregisterede");
        }
    }
}

Here we check whether the changed file is "myFile.txt", if it is then do whatever.

Solution 2:

No it isn't possible to register a file, the watch service doesn't work this way. But registering a directory actually watches changes on the directory children (the files and sub-directories), not the changes on the directory itself.

If you want to watch a file, then you register the containing directory with the watch service. Path.register() documentation says:

WatchKey java.nio.file.Path.register(WatchService watcher, Kind[] events, Modifier... modifiers) throws IOException

Registers the file located by this path with a watch service.

In this release, this path locates a directory that exists. The directory is registered with the watch service so that entries in the directory can be watched

Then you need to process events on entries, and detect those related to the file you are interested in, by checking the context value of the event. The context value represents the name of the entry (actually the path of the entry relatively to the path of its parent, which is exactly the child name). You have an example here.

Solution 3:

Other answers are right that you must watch a directory and filter for your particular file. However, you probably want a thread running in the background. The accepted answer can block indefinitely on watchService.take(); and doesn't close the WatchService. A solution suitable for a separate thread might look like:

public class FileWatcher extends Thread {
    private final File file;
    private AtomicBoolean stop = new AtomicBoolean(false);

    public FileWatcher(File file) {
        this.file = file;
    }

    public boolean isStopped() { return stop.get(); }
    public void stopThread() { stop.set(true); }

    public void doOnChange() {
        // Do whatever action you want here
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
        try (WatchService watcher = FileSystems.getDefault().newWatchService()) {
            Path path = file.toPath().getParent();
            path.register(watcher, StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_MODIFY);
            while (!isStopped()) {
                WatchKey key;
                try { key = watcher.poll(25, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS); }
                catch (InterruptedException e) { return; }
                if (key == null) { Thread.yield(); continue; }

                for (WatchEvent<?> event : key.pollEvents()) {
                    WatchEvent.Kind<?> kind = event.kind();

                    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
                    WatchEvent<Path> ev = (WatchEvent<Path>) event;
                    Path filename = ev.context();

                    if (kind == StandardWatchEventKinds.OVERFLOW) {
                        Thread.yield();
                        continue;
                    } else if (kind == java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_MODIFY
                            && filename.toString().equals(file.getName())) {
                        doOnChange();
                    }
                    boolean valid = key.reset();
                    if (!valid) { break; }
                }
                Thread.yield();
            }
        } catch (Throwable e) {
            // Log or rethrow the error
        }
    }
}

I tried working from the accepted answer and this article. You should be able to use this thread with new FileWatcher(new File("/home/me/myfile")).start() and stop it by calling stopThread() on the thread.