The new version, 1.8, of event daemon Upstart, which is used by Ubuntu and other distributions as an alternative to SysV init and launches the various system services during the boot-up process, can now also monitor files and directories. If a particular file or directory is created, modified or deleted, Upstart starts a related job. This means, for example, that services can be automatically restarted when their configuration file is changed; until now, administrators had to manually restart the service using initctl. The Upstart Cookbook has examples of how the new function can be used.

The other addition to version 1.8 is a graphical event monitor to keep track of events created by Upstart, which is particularly helpful for troubleshooting. The source code for the new version of Upstart can be downloaded from the project's Launchpad page. There are already binary packages for Ubuntu 13.04 and Upstart 1.8 will most likely be integrated into the daily builds for the upcoming Ubuntu release soon; at the moment, the Ubuntu developers are still using Upstart 1.7. More information about the release is available on Launchpad. Upstart is licensed under the GPLv2 and the source code can be downloaded from the Upstart web site.

(fab)