# Mode

Selects inotify, polling, or fen mode for file monitoring.

This parameter applies to imfile: Text File Input Module.

Name:

  Mode

Scope:

  module

Type:

  word

Default:

  module=inotify

Required?:

  no

Introduced:

  8.1.5

## Description

This specifies if imfile shall run in inotify (“inotify”) or polling (“polling”) mode. Traditionally, imfile used polling mode, which is much more resource-intense (and slower) than inotify mode. It is suggested that users turn on “polling” mode only if they experience strange problems in inotify mode. In theory, there should never be a reason to enable “polling” mode and later versions will most probably remove it.

If a legacy “$ModLoad” statement is used, the default is polling. This default was kept to prevent problems with old configurations. It might change in the future.

On Solaris, the FEN API is used instead of INOTIFY. You can set the mode to fen or inotify (which is automatically mapped to fen on Solaris OS). Please note that the FEN is limited compared to INOTIFY. Deep wildcard matches may not work because of the API limits for now.

## Module usage

    module(load="imfile" Mode="inotify")

## Notes

- Solaris uses the FEN API; deep wildcard matches may fail.

## See also

See also imfile: Text File Input Module.

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