I hate messy Downloads folders. You know the feeling:
report.pdf report(1).pdf report(2).pdf screenshot.png screenshot(1).png screenshot(2).png video_final.mp4 video_final_FINAL.mp4 notes.docx notes_copy.docx notes_copy_FINAL(1).docx
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At some point you just stop caring and let it rot.
Cron jobs felt overkill β why poll every minute just to watch an empty folder? So I built haul . Drop a file in a watched folder, it moves it to the right place. That's it.
The trick β zero CPU when idle
haul uses inotify , a filesystem event API built into the Linux kernel. Instead of running a loop, it just waits for the kernel to say "hey, a file arrived" β sorts it β then exits. systemd restarts it immediately for the next file.
No polling. No persistent process.β¦