How to write a specific modification of certain files

Question

I want to check the change history of some vital files in linux (e.g. nginx.conf). How to write a specific modification of certain files? Modification, for example, when and which line files are changed.

Answer 1

Inspired by @Jonathon's comment, I created a shell script that keeps track of all changes made to a specific file, while preserving the entire change history. The script depends on the installed inotifywait and git packages.

Here you can find the script https://github.com/hisham-hassan/linux-file-monitor

Usage: file-monitor.sh [-f|--file] <absolute-file-path> [-m|--monitor|-h|--history] file-monitor.sh --help -f,--file <absolute-file-path> Adding a file to the monitored files List. The <absolute-file-path> is the absolute file path of the file we need to action. PLEASE NOTE: Relative file path could cause issues in the script, please make sure to use the abolute path of the file. also try to avoid sym links, as it has not been tested. example: file-monitor.sh -f /absolute/path/to/file/test.txt -m -m, --monitor Monitoring all the changes on the file. the monitoring will keep happening as long as the script is running; you may need to run it in the background. example: file-monitor.sh -f /absolute/path/to/file/test.txt -m -h, --history showing the full history of the file. To exit, press "q" example: file-monitor.sh -f /absolute/path/to/file/test.txt -h --uninstall uninstalls the script from the bin direcotry, and removes the monitoring history. --install Adds the script to the bin directory, and creates the directories and files needed for monitoring. --help Prints this help message.