sourcewatch

A file synchronization tool that watches a source directory and syncs changes to a destination, respecting .gitignore rules. Designed to run in Docker/Podman on Windows with a read-only bind mount.

How it works

Initial sync — copies all non-ignored files from /host to /data
Watch — monitors /host for changes and syncs them in real-time

Building

# Build with Go (requires Go 1.24+)
go build -o sourcewatch .

# Build Docker/Podman image
docker build -t sourcewatch .

Usage

# Linux
docker run -v /path/to/source:/host:ro -v watchdata:/data sourcewatch

# Windows
docker run -v c:\source:/host:ro -v watchdata:/data sourcewatch

# Podman (same syntax)
podman run -v c:\source:/host:ro -v watchdata:/data sourcewatch

Flags

-host string      Host source directory (default "/host")
-data string      Data destination directory (default "/data")
-verbose          Enable verbose logging (shorthand for -log-level debug)
-log-level string Log level: debug, info, warn, error, none (default "info")
-dry-run          Preview what would be synced without copying

Example

# Build
docker build -t sourcewatch .

# Run with verbose output
docker run -d --name watch \
  -v c:\myproject:/host:ro \
  -v project-data:/data \
  sourcewatch -verbose

# Check logs
docker logs -f watch

# Stop
docker rm -f watch

.gitignore support

Full gitignore spec: *, **, [], ! negation
Nested .gitignore files (child patterns override parents)
Patterns scoped to their directory
.git directory always skipped

Example .gitignore:

*.log
build/
!important.log

Limitations

One-way sync only (/host → /data)
/host must be read-only
? single-character wildcard not supported (go-gitignore limitation)

License

MIT