Can you monitor a folder for changes?

Question

Let's say I have a folder that is located in "/tmp".

Let's say it is called myfolder "/tmp/myfolder" and I would like to protect this folder or I would like to be notified if changes are made to this folder.

I heard it should be possible with "syslog", how it works I don't know

Answer 1

We can monitor folders in at least three ways:

• Using AppleScript Folder Actions, which can monitor when files are added or removed form a folder, or when the folder window is opened, closed, or moved int he Finder. see Folder Actions Reference.
• Using a launchd launch agent, which can launch a unix script or script application when the file system changes at a particular path. See Launch Daemons and Agents.
• Create an AppleScript application that uses AppleScriptObjC to receive notifications for file system changes. I can add an example of that if you think it's necessary, though I'd recommend using one of the others for most cases.

I suppose something could be done using syslog, but it seems like a lot more work than the approaches I mentioned.