Automatic rsync on file change (alternative for systems without inotifywait)

watch_sync.py

import sys
import time
import logging
from watchdog.observers import Observer
from watchdog.events import RegexMatchingEventHandler
from subprocess import call
import argparse

class RsyncHandler(RegexMatchingEventHandler):
    def __init__(self, path, target):
        # ignore hidden files
        super(RsyncHandler, self).__init__(ignore_regexes=['^[.]{1}.*', '.*/[.]{1}.*'])
        logging.info("rsyncing %s to %s", path, target)
        self.path = path
        self.target = target
        self.debounce_threshold = 1 # require at least 1 second between syncs
        self.last_sync = None

    def sync(self):
        if self.last_sync is None or time.time() - self.last_sync > self.debounce_threshold:
            logging.info("sync")
            call(["rsync", "-avz", "-e", "ssh", self.path, self.target])
            self.last_sync = time.time()

    def on_any_event(self, event):
        self.sync()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO,
                        format='%(asctime)s - %(message)s',
                        datefmt='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Sync files to balancebot')
    parser.add_argument('path', default='.', help='local path to sync')
    parser.add_argument('-r', '--reverse',  action='store_true', help='Whether to reverse the direction of syncing')
    parser.add_argument('-w', '--wifi',  action='store_true', help='Whether to connect via wifi')
    args = parser.parse_args()

    ip = '3.105' if args.wifi else '7.2'
    path = args.path
    target = "debian@192.168.{}:~/{}".format(ip, path)
    if args.reverse:
        target, path = path, target

    event_handler = RsyncHandler(path, target)
    # initial sync
    event_handler.sync()

    observer = Observer()
    observer.schedule(event_handler, path, recursive=True)
    observer.start()
    try:
        while True:
            time.sleep(1)
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        observer.stop()
    observer.join()