--watch should monitor replaced files

What is the problem this feature will solve?

Currently, --watch watches an inode and not necessarily what the user might consider a "file". This can cause confusion on systems that write to disk by deleting the old file and then creating a new one.

For example, when using Docker Compose's watch mode, the watched file is first deleted. When a new file is created Node currently fails to restart on file changes, as node is still watching the inode of the deleted file, and doesn't react to the new file being created.

What is the feature you are proposing to solve the problem?

While this behavior makes sense for the lower-level and more "raw" fs.watch(), perhaps the more general --watch behavior can be expanded to be smarter about detecting replaced files. Alternatively, a new flag can be introduced with this behavior.

What alternatives have you considered?

Other alternatives require using one of the different file watcher libs. That seems like a step down from the otherwise awesome native watch feature.

Docker Compose Issue: [BUG] Compose Watch With “node –watch” Only Reloads First Time
Docker Issue: node --watch doesn't work well within a container

Start with the Node.js --watch implementation and the fs.watch behavior described in the issue. Reproduce the Docker Compose-style delete-and-recreate sequence, then determine whether the existing behavior should be expanded or exposed through a new flag. Done means --watch reliably reacts when a watched file is replaced, with coverage for the replacement case.