“He’s not just a daemon… he’s the MATT-daemon.”
matt-daemon is a no-nonsense, file-based task automation daemon for Linux. Think of it as your personal task butler: silently watching your directories and springing into action when a trigger file appears.
Whether you're moving freshly downloaded media, kicking off backups, or launching scripts like a DevOps ninja, matt-daemon is here for it. Built for security, speed, and full systemd integration — because crons are boring and inotify is beautiful.
"One small file for man, one giant task for matt-daemon."
- File-Based Triggers: Monitor designated directories for the creation of specific files to initiate tasks.
- Flexible Task Execution: Configure tasks to move files/directories, set ownership and permissions, or execute arbitrary scripts.
- Safe and Idempotent: Automatically removes trigger files upon task initiation to prevent duplicate executions.
- Systemd Integration: Seamlessly integrates with systemd for easy management, startup, and logging.
- Configurable Behavior: Customize task parameters, including overwrite policies and permission settings, through a YAML configuration file.
- Dry run and Stats: Supports dry-run and stats modes.
- Efficient: Uses inotify on Linux to efficiently monitor file system events.
"Drop a file. Trigger a task. Deploy with style."
- Automating deployment processes by dropping a trigger file to initiate scripts.
- Organizing files by moving them to designated directories with specific permissions.
- Running maintenance tasks or backups triggered by simple file creation.
"Your friendly file-watching daemon — mission-ready."
Just clone this repo and run the install/upgrade script.
install_or_upgrade.shThe install/upgrade script installs the binary to /usr/local/sbin/matt-daemon, upgrades it if necessary, installs the systemd service, enables the service, and installs a default configuration file to /etc/matt-daemon/config.yaml if one does not already exist. It won't overwrite your existing configuration file.
"He watches. He waits. He runs your scripts."
You can configure different types of tasks.
- Move Tasks are focused on moving files and directories with options for permissions and ownership.
- Generic Tasks provide greater flexibility and can run any executable task, making them suitable for more complex workflows.
The configuration file is a YAML file consisting of a list of different kinds of tasks including move_tasks and generic_tasks.
Each move task defines:
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
trigger |
string | ✅ | Path to a file that triggers the move task |
source |
string | ✅ | Directory to move files from |
target |
string | ✅ | Directory to move files to |
user |
string | optional | Set the owner of the moved files/folders |
group |
string | optional | Set the group for the moved files/folders |
file_mode |
string | optional | File permission mode (e.g., "0640") |
dir_mode |
string | optional | Directory permission mode (e.g., "0750") |
overwrite |
boolean | optional | If true, replaces files/folders that already exist in the target dir |
pre |
string[] | optional | One or more shell commands to run before moving begins |
post |
string[] | optional | One or more shell commands to run after move is complete |
pre hooks must succeed (exit code 0), or the move task is aborted. post hooks are executed even if file moves fail, and their errors are only logged.
Each generic task defines:
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
trigger |
string | ✅ | Path to a file that triggers the task |
run |
string[] | ✅ | One or more shell commands to run |
move_tasks:
- trigger: /storage2/Temp/Ready/Movies/move.now
source: /storage2/Temp/Ready/Movies/
target: /storage1/Movies/
user: plex
group: plexreaders
file_mode: "0640"
dir_mode: "0750"
overwrite: true
pre:
- "/usr/local/bin/pre-movie-hook.sh"
post:
- "/usr/local/bin/post-movie-hook.sh"
- "logger 'Finished moving movies'"
- trigger: /storage2/Temp/Ready/TV/move.now
source: /storage2/Temp/Ready/TV/
target: /storage1/TV/
user: plex
group: plexreaders
file_mode: "0640"
dir_mode: "0750"
overwrite: false
generic_tasks:
- trigger: /triggers/run_backup.now
run:
- "/usr/local/bin/full-backup.sh"
- "/usr/local/bin/some-other-script.sh"
- trigger: /var/www/html/stats.csv
run:
- "/usr/local/bin/generate-report.sh"
matt-daemon logs everything to stderr, which is captured by systemd and viewable using the journal.
To follow logs in real time:
journalctl -u matt-daemon.service -fYou run:
- Transmission as one user (e.g.,
transmission) - Samba to manage and copy files to a staging folder as a different user (e.g.,
chris) - Plex with its own user (e.g.,
plex)
matt-daemon keeps a close watch on your source folders, patiently waiting for a file named move.now to appear. When the user chris drops a move.now file into a movie or TV staging folder, the daemon springs into action — automatically moving all media files from the staging area into the proper Plex library folder, applying the correct permissions along the way.