linux os.rename() not an actual rename?

[Jason H]

> From: "Christian Heimes" <christian at python.org>
> On 2015-07-20 20:50, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> > "Jason H" <jhihn at gmx.com>:
> > 
> >> I have a server process that looks (watches via inotify) for files to
> >> be moved (renamed) into a particular directory from elsewhere on the
> >> same filesystem. We do this because it is an atomic operation, and our
> >> server process can see the modify events of the file being written
> >> before it is closed. The rename functions as a 'completed' event. We
> >> have a python script that attempts to perform this behavior - to
> >> os.rename() a file into the watched directory after it is done being
> >> written. However unlike other tools, we don't see a proper 'rename'
> >> event. Instead we just see a 'changed' event. I've changed the
> >> implementation of the script to os.system('mv ...') and we get the
> >> expected 'rename' event.
> > 
> > Don't know about inotify(). However, strace reveals that python3's
> > os.rename() performs a regular rename(2) system call.
> 
> So does Python 2.7:
> 
> $ touch test
> $ strace -e trace=file -- python -c 'import os; os.rename("test", "test2")'
> execve("/bin/python", ["python", "-c", "import os; os.rename(\"test\",
> \"te"...], [/* 76 vars */]) = 0
> access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
> open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
> ...
> rename("test", "test2") = 0
> +++ exited with 0 +++

Hrm, provably, you're right. But I was seeing 'rename', then two 'changed' events on the dest name, but the last thing the process did was rename before it exited. 

I'll look into it some more now that I know python should be using the OS implementation of rename. 

Thanks everyone.