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Asked: 2026-05-17T15:43:54+00:00

I would like Pyinotify to watch a templates directory, which has subfolders, but I’m

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I would like Pyinotify to watch a templates directory, which has subfolders, but I’m getting this error: 

DIRECTORY /home/project/templates
[Pyinotify ERROR] add_watch: cannot watch /home/project/templates WD=-1
[Pyinotify ERROR] add_watch: cannot watch /home/project/templates/dir1 WD=-1
[Pyinotify ERROR] add_watch: cannot watch /home/project/templates/dir2 WD=-1
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I’ve found answers such as using a unicode directory name or using other programs which use inotify, but each is too specific.

What generally causes this error?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Increase the maximum number or watches: 

    sudo sysctl -n -w fs.inotify.max_user_watches=16384

    Reference: http://github.com/seb-m/pyinotify/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions

    ASIDE

    If you’re looking for notification tools, also try http://github.com/peterbe/python-gorun.

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