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Is there a way to detect file renaming using Java? (NIO's WatchService API or any other) From what I've seen when renaming a file two separate events occur - ENTRY_DELETE and then ENTRY_CREATE.

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Take a look at jpathwatch. In addition to the standard watch event kinds specified in Java 7 (ENTRY_CREATE, ENTRY_DELETE, ENTRY_MODIFY) it also has additional events called ENTRY_RENAME_FROM and ENTRY_RENAME_TO which will fire when a file is renamed. Note that this depends on whether the underlying operating system supports file renaming events or not.

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Detecting renaming of files can not be done portably. Because, surprising as it may seem, the idea that a file HAS-A name is not portable. Most Unix file systems allow a file to have any number of ASSOCIATED names (including zero names). In the Unix (POSIX) world, renaming means adding a new name and then removing the original name.

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I think the jnotify would be useful in your case.

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