Show HN: GitHub File Watcher – get notified when files change in a GitHub repo

[pearjuice]

Using "github" in your domain name limits you to github (many other repository services exist) and makes you a potential target for trademark claims.

Also, I think you are onto something. Git remotes are mostly passive, where you have to pull to see whether there are any updates. There is no subscription model to get notified of changes. You have to actively pull to find out what is new.

You should try to make this as a standalone service, which works with Git remotes, not just a Git hosting party. Then locally, you can pull the repo/commits and check what has updated (diff) and inform subscribers accordingly.

[krallin]

These are great points; thanks for your feedback! :)

I'm trying to validate whether there's any interest in something this, so I definitely cut a lot of corners (e.g. the app doesn't maintain a copy of the repository — it just uses the GitHub API). Also using GitHub in the name might not have been the best idea.. though! ;)

I agree with you regarding the usefulness of watching arbitrary repositories. There's already git-notifier [0] that does pretty much this, but you have to set it up for yourself and it has to be configured using a text file.

[0]: http://www.icir.org/robin/git-notifier/

[zwischenzug]

See my comment above re:

https://github.com/ianmiell/alert-on-change/blob/master/READ...

[hudell]

Very useful!

I write plugins for RpgMaker and a lot of the people who use them are regular users who don't know how to use GitHub. Some of them had asked for a way they could get notifications every time I update a plugin, this will be very useful for that.

Can I request a feature? Would be nice to have a way I could pass the repository and file names on the query string, so I can put a link where people only need to inform their email and submit to start receiving notifications for that.

[krallin]

Ha, this is a great idea! I've added this now :). Just reload.

[zoidb]

Funny thing i almost did exactly this until i realized you can use rss which can also watch directories easily enough for example https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/master/Documentati... . Also unfortunately i found that using the api is probably not going to scale if a lot of people want to use it and local clones are pretty expensive.

[krallin]

Ha, interesting trick! : )

The GitHub API allows up to 5,000 requests per hour. I currently poll once an hour, so there's a bit of headway. If that becomes a problem, I think I can always space out checks for less-active repositories (there's also the option of allowing users to authenticate with GitHub and use their own quota so they don't have to share it with anyone else).

Cheers

[zwischenzug]

I wrote a more generic solution to this kind of problem recently, which I run as a service:

https://github.com/ianmiell/alert-on-change/blob/master/READ...

It's probably more suited for the programming types.

For example, you can do a 'raw' GitHub request to determine when a particular file has changed.

[iM8t]

Thanks! I've been looking for something like this for quite a while now, but without any success.

[julbaxter]

Does not wok on private repo.

[krallin]

Indeed, not yet! Private repo support would require authenticating with GitHub, which makes the project a bit more complex.

I definitely plan to add this if there's enough interest. There should be a link to a mailing list to be notified when that rolls around (http://eepurl.com/bILhR1).

Thanks for checking it out anyway! : )

[okasaki]

You can also just subscribe to commits via RSS.

[unfunco]

Yes, you can. But that's not as granular as watching for changes on one or more specific files. The atom feed provided by GitHub provides the commit message, author, thumbnail, and date only.

[vive-la-liberte]

On GH itself or via OP link?

[fenollp]

What about you know… using Git?

[krallin]

I made this mainly to scratch my own itch :).

It's slightly more convenient for me to get a notification than to periodically pull repositories and check them for changes, but I understand that might not be the case for everyone!

[avitzurel]

This was posted a day ago. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10690114

[dang]

Yes, on HN reposts do not count as a dupe if the story hasn't had significant attention yet. In fact we invited the submitter to repost this one, which we sometimes do when a story seems like it would interest the community and deserves a second chance at attention.