Thans to Paul Duncan for the FAM bindings.  I finally, just now, got FAM and 
FAM/Ruby installed and working(?).  I am on Linux-2.4.18 and installed with 
the dnotify patch to FAM, so I should get real time events rather than 
polling.  I am hopeful that this will prove useful in my homegrown package 
manager.

BTW, I love this sig...
> > --
> > Laws are the spider's webs which, if anything small falls into them they
> > ensnare it, but large things break through and escape. -Solon, statesman
> > (c. 638-c558 BCE)