The notify utility continiously prints changes in a specified directory in the following format: M changed/path/1 M changed/path/2 - Where M stands for "Modifed", and "-" is the indicator of end of changeset Utility only returns specific directories that have changed, it does not print the files/directories that have been modified: you need to determine them yourself. Linux-specific notes: 1. You might need to adjust '/proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches' to allow more directories to be watched 2. If you have a lot of changes you might also want to increase queue size in /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_queued_events 3. Watched queue can overflow and notify utility can run out of watched directories. When you get exit code 3, you need to restart the daemon and re-process all directories you are interested in.