Knowing when a file completes.

[Greg Lindstrom]

I have an odd problem that I'm sure someone here can help me solve.  I 
am using Python 2.3 on a Linux box to process text files.  At one point 
in my automated process, I have to zip and ship the files over to a 
Windows server running a proprietary package to do some manipulation to 
the file.  Problem is that I need to know when the process completes 
processing the file.  Complicating matters is that this package names 
the output file using a guid type notation, so I don't have a clue as 
the output filename (though I do know the output directory).  We have 
considered running a query from the Linux box every 10 minutes or so 
looking for any "new" files in the windows directory, then monitoring 
the size of the files and when they stop growing bring them back to 
finish our work, but that doesn't make us feel very good.  Is there a 
way to run a daemon (or whatever it's called on windows) to detect when 
a new file is created in a directory and, more importantly, when it is 
"complete" (if that makes sense)?

Thanks for your help.
--greg

-- 
Greg Lindstrom               501 975.4859 (office)
Senior Programmer            501 219-4455 (fax)
NovaSys Health               greg.lindstrom at novasyshealth.com
Little Rock, Arkansas

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