From f88836c5559c5ba9efebcdd3b78c1901e3d851d6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jakob Odersky <jodersky@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 25 May 2015 11:41:19 +0200
Subject: add documentation on watchers

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 Documentation/watching.md | 47 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 47 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/watching.md

(limited to 'Documentation')

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+# Watching Ports
+As of version 2.2.0, flow can watch directories for new files. On most unix systems this can be used for watching for new serial ports in `/dev`.
+Watching happens through a message-based, publish-subscribe protocol as explained in the sections below.
+
+## Subscribe
+A client actor may watch, i.e subscribe to notifications on, a directory by sending a `Watch` command to the serial manager.
+
+Should an error be encountered whilst trying to obtain the watch, the manager will respond with a `CommandFailed` message.
+Otherwise, the client may be considered "subscribed" to the directory and the serial manager will thenceforth notify
+the client on new files.
+
+```scala
+IO(Serial) ! Watch(directory = "/dev", skipInitial = true)
+
+def receive = {
+  case CommandFailed(w: Watch, reason) =>
+    println(s"Cannot obtain a watch on ${w.directory}: ${reason.getMessage}")
+}
+
+```
+
+Note the second argument `skipInitial` of the watch command. This flag specifies if the client should not be notified of files already present
+during the manager's reception of the watch command.
+
+## Notifications
+Whilst subscribed to a directory, a client actor is informed of any new files in said directory by receiving
+`Connected` messages from the manager.
+
+```scala
+def receive = {
+  case Connected(port) if port matches "/dev/ttyUSB.*" =>
+    // do something with the available port, e.g.
+    // IO(Serial) ! Open(port, settings)
+}
+```
+
+## Unsubscribe
+Unsubscribing from events on a directory happens by sending an `Unsubscribe` message to the serial manager.
+
+```scala
+IO(Serial) ! Unwatch(directory = "/dev")
+```
+
+Note that the manager has a deathwatch on every subscribed client. Hence should a client die, underlying resources will be freed.
+
+# Requirements
+Flow uses java's `WatchService`s under the hood, therefore a java runtime of at least 1.7 is required.
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