Email notification on file change in particular directory with Python

Question

I would like to script a function wich is looking in a particular directory for files, if there are new files, it should send out an notification email.

I already prepared a script which is looking for new files in a directory, it write the notification about a new file into the console. But now I would like to notified via email, as soon as there has a new file arrived. Could someone help?

import os, time
def run():
    path_to_watch = "//D$:/testfolder/"
    print "watching: " + path_to_watch
    before = dict ([(f, None) for f in os.listdir (path_to_watch)])
    while 1:
        after = dict ([(f, None) for f in os.listdir (path_to_watch)])
        added = [f for f in after if not f in before]
        removed = [f for f in before if not f in after]
        if added: print "Added: ", ", ".join (added)
        if removed: print "Removed: ", ", ".join (removed)
        before = after
        time.sleep (10)
if __name__ == "__main__":
    print run()

Could you not find this http://docs.python.org/library/smtplib.html in the library? — S.Lott, Oct 21 '10 at 11:57
possible duplicate of [Monitoring files/directories with python](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/597903/monitoring-files-directories-with-python) — S.Lott, Oct 21 '10 at 12:01
instead of looping over the directory, i recommend checking out pyinotify: http://github.com/seb-m/pyinotify -- this library can issue events on filesystem changes, so you'll know about new files sooner and you won't be doing useless listdir — Igor Serebryany, Oct 22 '10 at 03:19
on Windows http://timgolden.me.uk/python/win32_how_do_i/watch_directory_for_changes.html — jfs, Jan 29 '12 at 09:01

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 21 '10 at 13:45

It's very simple if you have an SMTP mail server set up (i'm assuming you have a mail system!). Will take you about 10 lines of code in total. Here is a python example.

If you have any problems, we will need more information to help further. For example, what mail system you are using e.t.c.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 03 '10 at 14:00

OKI, in this case I have worked out my own solution. Probably it can help somebody with a similar task to resolve.

import os, time, smtplib

from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.text import MIMEText

path_to_watch = "//networkpath/test/filetest"
print "watching: " + path_to_watch
before = dict ([(f, None) for f in os.listdir (path_to_watch)])
while 1:
    after = dict ([(f, None) for f in os.listdir (path_to_watch)])
    added = [f for f in after if not f in before]
    removed = [f for f in before if not f in after]
    if removed: print "Removed: ", ", ".join (removed)
    if added:
        print "Added: ", ", ".join (added)
        me = "me@test.de"
        you = "you@test.de"
        msg = MIMEMultipart('alternative')
        msg['Subject'] = "New file has approached."
        msg['From'] = me
        msg['To'] = you
        text = "New file has approached in:\n\\\networkpath\test\filetest"
        part1 = MIMEText(text, 'plain')
        msg.attach(part1)
        s = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.test.com')
        s.sendmail(me, you, msg.as_string())
        s.quit()
    time.sleep (10)
    before = after

Have fun!

Email notification on file change in particular directory with Python

2 Answers2

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