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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-10T13:25:15+00:00

I have a folder containing a hierarchy of subfolders and files. At regular intervals,

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I have a folder containing a hierarchy of subfolders and files.

At regular intervals, I need to check whether any file/folder has been modified/removed/added.

I am thinking of developing from scratch an algorithm that:

  1. Saves a representation of the whole arborescence in an embedded database (like SQLite) or file.
  2. Saves the checksum of each file into the same database.
  3. At the next call, compare this database with the actual filesystem.
  4. Update the database’s information with what is found to have been changed.
  5. Repeat from step 3.

Changes might occur while my program is not running, it can be closed/open at any time.
For instance the user might close the program on Monday, edit files on Tuesday, and re-open the program on Wednesday. I need to check what changed during that time, so I can’t use FileSystemWatcher.

Before I reinvent the wheel, is there already some library that does this?

Note:

  • I don’t have access to any VCS binaries like git or svn.
  • Language is C#, but I am ready to port any small Java library.
  • This is for an open source software, so it needs to be an open source library.
  • It is for a embedding into a desktop widget, so the lighter the better.
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If you can’t use the FileSystemWatcher (which I hate anyways, it’s the flakiest class in the framework IMO) your only other option is to manually keep track of the files. You will need to store the filenames and a hash of the file contents to check if the files are added/removed or changed. I would store this using a Database either SQLExpress or SQLite which has a C# wrapper.

    Your program would check the files on start/stop and then I would use a timer while it’s running to periodically check the files.

    Edit: Clarification from the OP, I don’t know of any library that does this out of the box. However it would be trivial to implement on your own. A small DB with one table, and a timer control in a console application or windows service would do exactly what you need.

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