Python watchdog event not returning entire src_path

I'm using python watchdog to keep track of what files have been changed locally. Because I'm not keeping track of an entire directory but specific files, I'm using watchdog's event.src_path to check if the changed file is the one I'm looking for.

I'm using the FileSystemEventHandler and on_modified, printing the src_path. However, when I edit a file that should have the path /home/user/project/test in gedit, I get two paths, one that looks like /home/user/project/.goutputstream-XXXXXX and one that looks something like this: home/user/project/. I never get the path I'm expecting. I thought there may have been something wrong with watchdog or my own code, but I tested the exact same process in vi, nano, my IDE (PyCharm), Sublime Text, Atom...and they all gave me the src_path I'm expecting.

I'm wondering if there is a workaround for gedit, since gedit is the default text editor for many Linux distributions...Thanks in advance.

Solution

From the Watchdog GitHub readme:

Vim does not modify files unless directed to do so. It creates backup files and then swaps them in to replace the files you are editing on the disk. This means that if you use Vim to edit your files, the on-modified events for those files will not be triggered by watchdog. You may need to configure Vim to appropriately to disable this feature.

As the quote says your issue is due to how these text editors modify files. Basically rather than directly modifying the file, then create "buffer" files that store the edited data. In your case this file is probably .goutputstream-XXXXXX. When you hit save your original file is deleted and a the buffer file is renamed into its place. So your second path is probably the result of the original file being deleted. Sometimes these files serve as backups instead, but still cause similar issues..

By far the easiest method to solve this issue is to disable the weird way of saving in your chosen text editor. In gedit this is done by unchecking the "Create a backup copy of file before saving" option within preferences. This will stop those backup files from being created and simplify life for watchdog. Where to click Image and preference info shamelessly stolen from this AskUbuntu question

For more information (and specific information for solving vim/vi) see this issue on the watchdog GitHub.

Basically for Vim you need to run these commands to disable the backup/swapping in feature:

:set nobackup
:set nowritebackup

You can add them to your .vimrc to automate the task