watchDirectory Help > Plugins > Automatically Start a Program
Automatically Start a Program for new, changed, renamed or deleted files
This plugin for watchDirectory can start any program (executable) when changes on your filesystem are detected. All specifics of this change (filename etcetera) are available as environment variables, and can also be passed as a parameter to the selected program.
Settings for this plugin
The executable to start
Here you enter the program that must be started. Do not enter any additional parameters for the program here! Also, even if the path to the program constains spaces
you should NOT enclose it with "quotes".
The Startup directory
If this program expects a certain "working directory" when it is started, you can enter it here. If you are unsure, just enter C:\ for the startup directory.
Parameters for this program
Enter all the parameters that this program expects. You can use all the environment variables described here as well. If you enter
such an environment variable, make sure to enclose it with percentages. For example, if you enter "%WD_FILE%", it is replaced by the detected file
when your program is started.
Filenames and paths often contain spaces that can confuse the program that is started. It is often best to enclose filename parameters with "quotes".
Wait for the program to exit
If you do not want the program to run multiple instances (one for each detected file), you must enable this option.
WatchDirectory will wait the number of seconds you enter here. If the program is still running after this wait, watchDirectory will stop it.
Extra Delay after starting the Program
Enter the number of seconds watchDirectory should wait (sleep) after your program is started. If you have not entered a "wait timeout" for the previous setting,
it is highly advised to let watchDirectory wait a few seconds after your program is started. This prevents overloading your computer when a lot of changes are detected.