Monitoring Changes in a Directory or Directory Tree

The following example monitors the directory tree starting at C:\ for directory name changes. It also monitors the C:\WINDOWS directory for filename changes.

The example uses the FindFirstChangeNotification function to create two notification handles and the WaitForMultipleObjects function to wait on the handles. Whenever a directory is created or deleted in the tree starting at C:\ , the example updates the entire directory tree. Whenever a file is created or deleted in the C:\WINDOWS directory, the example refreshes the WINDOWS directory. The FindNextChangeNotification function restarts the change notification each time the example processes a change.

DWORD dwWaitStatus;

HANDLE dwChangeHandles[2];

// Watch the C:\WINDOWS directory for file creation and

// deletion.

dwChangeHandles[0] = FindFirstChangeNotification(

"C:\\WINDOWS", // directory to watch

FALSE, // do not watch the subtree

FILE_NOTIFY_CHANGE_FILE_NAME); // watch filename changes

if (dwChangeHandles[0] == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)

ExitProcess(GetLastError());

// Watch the C:\ subtree for directory creation and

// deletion.

dwChangeHandles[1] = FindFirstChangeNotification(

"C:\\", // directory to watch

TRUE, // watch the subtree

FILE_NOTIFY_CHANGE_DIR_NAME); // watch dir. name changes

if (dwChangeHandles[1] == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)

ExitProcess(GetLastError());

// Change notification is set. Now wait on both notification

// handles and refresh accordingly.

while (TRUE)

{

// Wait for notification.

dwWaitStatus = WaitForMultipleObjects(2, dwChangeHandles,

FALSE, INFINITE);

switch (dwWaitStatus) {

case WAIT_OBJECT_0:

// A file was created or deleted in C:\WINDOWS.

// Refresh this directory and restart the

// change notification. RefreshDirectory is an

// application-defined function.

RefreshDirectory("C:\\WINDOWS")

if ( FindNextChangeNotification(

dwChangeHandles[0]) == FALSE )

ExitProcess(GetLastError());

break;

case WAIT_OBJECT_0 + 1:

// A directory was created or deleted in C:\.

// Refresh the directory tree and restart the

// change notification. RefreshTree is an

// application-defined function.

RefreshTree("C:\\");

if (FindNextChangeNotification(

dwChangeHandles[1]) == FALSE)

ExitProcess(GetLastError());

break;

default:

ExitProcess(GetLastError());

}

}