incron "runs" once and then it won't "watch" again

[MaxBenn]

What have i done so far?
I set up my table as followed: incrontab -e
/folder/.hiddenfolder/file IN_ATTRIB cp /folder/.hiddenfolder/file /folder/.hiddenbackup/$$(date +%Y%m%d)_file

After Accessing my file and saving the changes I do get my backup file.
On ls -l /folder/.hiddenbackup/ id shows me my file named: 20200208_file

Here comes the tricky part:
Now I access my file again, make some changes and save it but nothing happens.

when I check service incron status it showes me, that the service is running and active but no further event happened.

Anyclue why and what is going on?
I have tried IN_ATTRIB,IN_ONESHOT ... I've even tried IN_ALL_EVENTS.
When I use IN_ATTRIB only then i get a line in service incron status that says:
Feb 08 08:48:20 example.com incrond[1116]: PATH (/folder/.hiddenfolder/file) FILE () EVENT (IN_IGNORED)

After service incron restart everything works... but only once.

Thanks & Cheers,
MaxBenn

[wiktor2200]

Hi there I've encountered such a problem some time ago. And I find somewhere info that running nested commands is disabled in incrontab for security reasons. But I developed workaround solution.
Here it it ;)

1. Watch whole directory rather than file
   Watching files can causes problems when you have for example noatime parameter in fstab
2. Run bash script in incrontab rather than complex commands.
3. Log triggers in logfile it's easy when using script.

Example which shows solutions for your problem.

Incrontab entry (you can place bash script wherever you want)

/folder/.hiddenfolder IN_CLOSE_WRITE bash /folder/backup.bash $@ $#

Bash script

You can set your variables and set all needed conditions when it comes to filename which is tracked.

#!/bin/bash

LOGFILE_PATH="/folder/log.txt"
BACKUP_DIR="/folder/.hiddenbackup/"

# Check if deleted file's name is "file"
if [ "$2" == "file" ]; then

  # Copy $1 - aims to path, $2 - to filename - it corresponds with $@ $# incron parameters
  cp "$1/$2" "$BACKUP_DIR/`date +%Y%m%d`_file"

  # Simple logging
  echo "`date +%F_%T` $1/$2 is copied to backup directory" >> "$LOGFILE_PATH"
  exit;

else
  exit;
fi

I hope it will help you.

[wiktor2200]

And when it comes to this bug it's caused by triggering IN_IGNORED status after running once.
I think removing/commenting line:
https://github.com/ar-/incron/blob/1eedfbc9b318372efd119fd17f4abdbde561a53d/inotify-cxx.cpp#L458
could help, but it needs more testing.

[MaxBenn]

@wiktor2200 Thank you a lot for your effort...
I just copied your script and tested it.
After I was done testing I made some minor changes like date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S_file an so on but it works flawlessly.

+rep to you! :D

Thanks & Cheers,
MaxBenn

[MR-Diamond]

Same issue here: I'm watching a file for modifications (eg by using IN_MODIFY) but it works only once, then I always get PATH (/path/to/file/to/watch) FILE () EVENT (IN_IGNORED) and the action isn't triggered anymore by incrond (I should run systemctl status incrond.service but is not a solution).

I also tried IN_CLOSE_WRITE and IN_ATTRIB but unsuccesfully; I didn't find any workaround.

[MR-Diamond]

I think removing/commenting line:
https://github.com/ar-/incron/blob/1eedfbc9b318372efd119fd17f4abdbde561a53d/inotify-cxx.cpp#L458
could help, but it needs more testing

I recompiled incron by removing this and any other references about IN_IGNORED, but the mentioned issue, still persists.

[nre-ableton]

I've just run into this issue myself. The key workaround is mentioned by @wiktor2200 here:

Watch whole directory rather than file

So it seems that incron has some issues correctly watching single files. Unfortunately for me, I'm unable to watch the file's parent directory, since it's a directory that will receive a huge number of events and I only want to be notified when a particular file in this directory that seldom changes is changed.

This bug is quite old, is there any timeline on when it might be fixed?

[x4IPx]

Good afternoon. I also see this bug.
root

/home/fly/test/testfile IN_ALL_EVENTS   echo "$$ $@ $# $% $&

When I edit a file via nano there are no problems.
When I edit through neovim, I get the IN_IGNOREDand tracking stops working.

**Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: PATH (/home/fly/test/testfile) FILE () EVENT (IN_OPEN)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: (root) CMD (echo "$ /home/fly/test/testfile  IN_OPEN 32)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: PATH (/home/fly/test/testfile) FILE () EVENT (IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: (root) CMD (echo "$ /home/fly/test/testfile  IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE 16)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: PATH (/home/fly/test/testfile) FILE () EVENT (IN_OPEN)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: (root) CMD (echo "$ /home/fly/test/testfile  IN_OPEN 32)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: PATH (/home/fly/test/testfile) FILE () EVENT (IN_ACCESS)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: (root) CMD (echo "$ /home/fly/test/testfile  IN_ACCESS 1)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: PATH (/home/fly/test/testfile) FILE () EVENT (IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE)
Sep 26 16:44:23 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: (root) CMD (echo "$ /home/fly/test/testfile  IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE 16)
Sep 26 16:44:34 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: PATH (/home/fly/test/testfile) FILE () EVENT (IN_ATTRIB)
Sep 26 16:44:34 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: (root) CMD (echo "$ /home/fly/test/testfile  IN_ATTRIB 4)
Sep 26 16:44:34 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: PATH (/home/fly/test/testfile) FILE () EVENT (IN_DELETE_SELF)
Sep 26 16:44:34 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: (root) CMD (echo "$ /home/fly/test/testfile  IN_DELETE_SELF 1024)
Sep 26 16:44:34 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: PATH (/home/fly/test/testfile) FILE () EVENT (IN_IGNORED)
Sep 26 16:44:34 u1-g6 incrond[1418]: (root) CMD (echo "$ /home/fly/test/testfile  IN_IGNORED 32768)**