Hot reload - Otter Shell

Watch config files with hasChanged polling or an inotify Watcher. Most Otter daemons poll the watcher FD next to Wayland.

Modification time check

const result = try otter_conf.loadWithMetadata(Config, allocator, path, .{});
const last_mtime = result.mtime_ns;

if (try otter_conf.hasChanged(path, last_mtime)) {
    // reload
}

Watcher

var watcher = try otter_conf.Watcher.init(allocator);
defer watcher.deinit();

_ = try watcher.addWatch(allocator, path);

// Poll watcher.getFd() with Wayland:
while (watcher.nextEvent()) |event| {
    if (event.isModified()) {
        config = try otter_conf.load(Config, allocator, path, .{});
    }
}

Event helpers match otter-utils inotify: isModified, isDeleted, isCreated, isMoved, isIgnored.

Imports and multiple paths

When using loadWithImports, result.paths lists every file touched. Watch all of them or watch directories that contain imported fragments.

var res = try otter_conf.loadWithImports(Config, gpa, path, .{});
defer res.deinit(gpa);
// res.config, res.paths

Thread safety

Parsers are not thread-safe on the same buffer. Load once per file, then share the resulting struct read-only across threads.