That's why I like inotify in blocking mode - the call to poll() is just to wake up the process (I think you could just blocking-read the inotify file handle? I

That's why I like inotify in blocking mode - the call to poll() is just to wake up the process (I think you could just blocking-read the inotify file handle? I haven't tried it directly). The point of using inotify is that you don't need to poll, because the kernel send your process reliable events instead over a file handle. The use of poll(2) is just a consequence of the interface using a file handle. As, I originally said, though, there is certainly no one-size-fits-all solution, these are just a few of the available options, which may not be apropriate for your situation.