ffmpeg - Creating a watch folder

I’ve seen so many times questions on how to create a watch folder that together with ffmpeg will convert videos from one format to the flv.

So today i felt like trying to create one in Python using inotify.

Inotify is linux kernel only subsystem that provides file system notification. It’s a replacement of dnotify which was a pain in you know where to work with.

I worked with inotify last week doing an image optimizer daemon. I’m writing this in my head and haven’t tested it since i’m at home with no access to a linux box but it should work fine.

You need python, pyinotify, a kernel 2.6.13+ and ofcourse ffmpeg :)

  1. # @author funciton communications <info@funciton.com>
  2. # @version 1.0.0
  4. # Imports
  5. import inotify
  6. import logging
  7. import logging.handlers
  8. import sys
  9. from os import system
  11. # Mask
  12. __flags = inotify.ATTRIB
  14. # Init
  16. if __name__ == "__main__":
  18. path = sys.argv[1]
  20. if len(sys.argv) == 1:
  21. print >> sys.stderr, "Usage: " + sys.argv[0] + " path"
  22. sys.exit(0)
  24. logger = logging.getLogger('watchfolder')
  25. logger.addHandler(logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler('/var/log/watchfolder.log'))
  27. watcher = inotify.Watcher()
  29. if not watcher.is_watching(path):
  30. print >> sys.stderr, "watching "+ path
  31. watcher.watch(path, __flags)
  33. while (True):
  34. try:
  35. event = watcher.get_next_event()
  36. except Exception:
  37. print "re-scanning"
  38. continue
  40. try:
  41. if event & inotify.ATTRIB:
  42. filename, ext = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(image))
  43. if ext != ".flv":
  44. # execute ffmpeg
  45. system("ffmpeg -i " + filename + ext + " " + filename + ".flv")
  46. except Exception, er:
  47. print er.strerror
  48. continue

To test it out:

  1. python watchFolder.py /path/to/folder

I’ll test it tomorrow at work if i get better (i’m sick at home) so let me know right away if you find smth which isn’t working fine.

— fernando


Posted on August 30, 2007 5:36 PM
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comments

Stefan

looks sweet

Posted on August 31, 2007 4:25 AM