Automatic notification of file system changes

[muru at iris.brown.edu]

Could anyone tell me what needs to be done for the following sample scenarios
to work on a Sun 4.03 environment?
1) If anyone modifies a file in my home directory, I want a script to be
   triggered that will make a "diff" of the old and new files?

2) Anytime a directory is opened, closed, or modified or a printer is brought
   up or down, I want a signal to be sent to my active process to 
   perform "certain actions."

Specifically, I will appreciate if anyone can tell me how much changes need to
be made at the kernel level, the order of difficulty for a "non-hacker" to make
these changes, and pointers to man pages, manuals, or books.

Thanks.

muru