Marvin monitors your files. When files or directories are created, deleted, changed, moved, or renamed, Marvin logs it. Marvin can also send notifications using email or Pushover.

Marvin is for people who never want to lose valuable data. Your files can change without your knowledge due to mistakes, viruses, buggy applications, other users' actions, and more. Backups and snapshots are great, but they only help if you notice that your files were changed before it's too late. If you don't, your backups will eventually be overwritten with the changed file versions. Marvin solves the problem by logging changes and notifying you about them in near real-time.

You need:

1. A Linux machine
2. Python 3.x and pip (on Ubuntu-like distros, sudo apt install python3-pip)
3. (optional) An email account from which to send notifications, if you want to send yourself email notifications
4. (optional) A free Mailgun account and API key, if you want to send email notifications through Mailgun
5. (optional) A free Pushover user and app token, if you want push notifications via Pushover

1. Download this repository

   git clone https://github.com/dgsharpe/marvin.git
   

2. Rename example-config.json to config.json and edit it to your preferences.
3. Install the required libraries with pip. On Ubuntu, sudo python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
4. If your distribution uses systemd (as Ubuntu and most other popular distributions do), then do the following to run Marvin as a background service:

Create a file at /etc/systemd/system/marvin.service like this, changing the values as appropriate:

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    
    [Unit]
    Description=Marvin - The Paranoid File Monitor
    After=local-fs.target
    
    [Service]
    Type=simple
    User=root
    Group=root
    WorkingDirectory=/path/to/marvin/directory/
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /path/to/marvin/directory/marvin.py
    Restart=always

Then run sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable marvin.service && sudo systemctl start marvin.service

5. If your distribution does not use systemd, you can run Marvin in the background with the 'screen' utility, as in, screen python3 marvin.py. Furthermore, you can set Marvin to run via screen at system boot, using cron. Edit your crontab with crontab -e and add a line like this (changing the paths to Marvin, screen, and python3 as needed): @reboot sleep 5; cd /path/to/marvin/; /usr/bin/screen -dm /usr/bin/python3 marvin.py

Notifications can be configured in the config.json file. You can have Marvin email you directly, you can send emails via Mailgun, and you can use Pushover to send push notifications to iOS and Android devices. These can be used in any combination, or skipped entirely.

This section will guide you through setting up your computer for sending emails from an email account of your choice. These instructions are tested on Ubuntu, but will be similar for other distributions. If you've already configured a mail transfer agent, you can skip to step 5.

If you're sending from a Gmail account, Gmail may require you to configure an app-specific password or enable less-secure apps on that account. If you're highly security-conscious, create a burner account for use with Marvin.

1. Install ssmtp with sudo apt install ssmtp
2. Edit the config file: sudo nano /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf
3. Copy-paste the following, but replace the values with parameters from your email provider and account. The example values here are from Gmail:

   mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587
   UseSTARTTLS=YES
   FromLineOverride=YES
   AuthUser=disposable-email-account@gmail.com
   AuthPass=disposable-email-account-password
   

4. Run a test to make sure everything is working:

   echo "hello world" | mail -s "Test Email" your-recipient-email-address@somewebsite.com
   

5. In your Marvin config.json file, enable the localMail notifier, and set the recipient email address.

Before setting up free emails via a Mailgun "sandbox" domain, be aware that Mailgun does not intend users to use sandboxes forever. If you do not have a real domain associated with your Mailgun account, you may have your free sandbox stop working eventually. Marvin will work the same with a fully-configured domain as with a free sandbox domain, so if you already have a configured domain, feel free to simply enter your API Key and Domain Name into the config.json file. If you don't but want to try Mailgun, read on.

1. Go to mailgun.com and sign up for a free account. You do not need to enter your payment information, the free plan works just fine.
2. Click the activation link sent to your email to fully activate your account.
3. Click your email address at the top right, then go to Account Settings. Then click the "Authorized Recipients" tab.
4. Invite the email address you want notifications sent to. Mailgun will send a confirmation email to this address - click it to confirm the authorized recipient. Put this authorized recipient email address into your Marvin config as the "emailAddress"
5. Now click the "Security" tab, next to the Authorized Recipients tab. Click the eye icon to view your Private API Key. Put this into your Marvin config as the "apiKey"
6. Now click the "Domains" tab at the top of the page. You should now have one domain whose name starts with "sandbox". Copy its full name and put it into your Marvin config as the "domainName".
7. All set!

You will need two pieces of information to set up Pushover notifications - your "User Key" and an "App Token". To get those:

1. Go to pushover.net and sign up for an account. All Pushover clients have a 7 day free trial, then have a one time cost of $4.99.
2. Once logged in, you should see your profile page, with your User Key in the upper right.
3. Under the section "Your Applications", select "Create an Application/API Token".
4. Name your application. Give it a description or image if desired. URL can be left blank.
5. Copy your new API token to your config, along with the user key.
6. Enjoy!

Donate via Bitcoin, 1KZGrTNjtthNEsf8fruWiMHiKD3zdm3hGY