
Show HN: GitHub File Watcher – get notified when files change in a GitHub repo - krallin
http://github-file-watcher.com/
======
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/](http://www.icir.org/robin/git-
notifier/)

------
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.

~~~
hudell
Thanks a lot!

------
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...](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/master/Documentation.atom)
. 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...](https://github.com/ianmiell/alert-on-
change/blob/master/README.md)

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](http://eepurl.com/bILhR1)).

Thanks for checking it out anyway! : )

------
okasaki
You can also just subscribe to commits via RSS.

~~~
vive-la-liberte
On GH itself or via OP link?

~~~
okasaki
Oh GH. e.g.
[https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/master.atom](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/master.atom)

~~~
vive-la-liberte
Thanks :)

------
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](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.

~~~
winstonyw
Hmm, so I guess there's some sort of manual curation going on for what's
interesting and can be posted again? Is there a criteria for such curation?
Karma? Past posts? Past comments? Social influence? Who the OP really is? Will
the OP also be advised on a better timing to post the link again so that it
would have a better chance of getting attention?

~~~
krallin
Here's the email I got inviting me to re-post the story. That's all I know : )

    
    
      Hi there,
    
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10690114 looks good, but didn't
      get much attention. Would you care to repost it? You can do so
      here: https://news.ycombinator.com/repost?id=10690114.
    
      Please use the same account (krallin), title, and URL. When these match,
      the software will give the repost an upvote from the mods, plus we'll
      help make sure it doesn't get flagged.
    
      This is part of an experiment in giving good HN submissions multiple
      chances at the front page. If you have any questions, let us know. And
      if you don't want these emails, sorry! Tell us and we won't do it again.
    
      Thanks for posting good things to Hacker News,
      Daniel

