Watching a Directory and sub directory for create, modify and Changes in java

Question

I have make some code for detect changed in directory C:/java/newfolder it working good. i have given below.

import java.nio.file.*;
import java.util.List;

public class DirectoryWatchExample {
public static void testForDirectoryChange(Path myDir){

        try {
           WatchService watcher = myDir.getFileSystem().newWatchService();
           myDir.register(watcher, StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_CREATE,
           StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_DELETE, StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_MODIFY);

           WatchKey watckKey = watcher.take();

           List<WatchEvent<?>> events = watckKey.pollEvents();
           for (WatchEvent event : events) {
                if (event.kind() == StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_CREATE) {
                    System.out.println("Created: " + event.context().toString());
                }
                if (event.kind() == StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_DELETE) {
                    System.out.println("Delete: " + event.context().toString());
                }
                if (event.kind() == StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_MODIFY) {
                    System.out.println("Modify: " + event.context().toString());
                }
            }

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + e.toString());
        }
}

public static void main (String[] args) {
    Path myDir = Paths.get("c:/java/newfolder/");
    //define a folder root
    testForDirectoryChange(myDir);

}
} 

now i watching only the directory. But i need to watch only the all sub directory.

for ex : c:/java/newfolder/folder1, c:/java/newfolder/folder2, c:/java/newfolder/folder3......etc

i given examples above sub directory

c:/java/newfolder/*..

i need to watch the all sub directory give me some solutions ?

Answer 1

What you want to do is register the WatchService recursively and continue to register it upon subsequent ENTRY_CREATE events. A complete example is provided by Oracle here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/io/examples/WatchDir.java

Normally I wouldn't place a post with a single link, however I doubt Oracle will be taking down a fairly basic tutorial and the answer is far too verbose. Just in case though, examples are easily found by searching for "java watchservice recursive".