Comment 1 for bug 162119

If I remember correctly, TimeVault does in fact make extensive use of inotify for backups. It used inotify to listen for file changes. Once a file is changed, it further waits a specified amount of time after the change, to avoid making a backup of a file that is currently in use. Finally a backup is made of the changed file.

If you root around in the python source code (http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~timevaulters/timevault/trunk/annotate/head%3A/src/TimeVault/server.py), I believe you will find your suggestion already implemented, in lines such as self.watcher = watcher.Watcher(self.INotifyCallback, self.cfg)

I did not in any way develop TimeVault, but I did troubleshoot an issue we had with kernel limits on the number of inotify watches. It is in fact a fairly good way to ensure backups are made, but it is not perfect.