Question

Is there a simple solution (using common shell utils, via a util provided by most distributions, or some simple python/… script) to restart a process when some files change?

It would be nice to simply call sth like watch -cmd "./the_process -arg" deps/*.

Update:
A simple shell script together with the proposed inotify-tools (nice!) fit my needs (works for commands w/o arguments):

#!/bin/sh
while true; do
  $@ &
  PID=$!
  inotifywait $1
  kill $PID
done

Answer 1

Yes, you can watch a directory via the inotify system using inotifywait or inotifywatch from the inotify-tools.

inotifywait will exit upon detecting an event. Pass option -r to watch directories recursively. Example: inotifywait -r mydirectory.

You can also specify the event to watch for instead of watching all events. To wait only for file or directory content changes use option -e modify.