grunt-contrib-nodemon

Run nodemon as a grunt task for easy configuration and integration with the rest of your workflow

Getting Started

If you haven't used grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a gruntfile as well as install and use grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-contrib-nodemon --save-dev

Then add this line to your project's Gruntfile.js gruntfile:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-nodemon');

Documentation

Minimal Usage

The minimal usage of grunt-contrib-nodemon runs with a script specified:

nodemon: {
  dev: {
    script: 'index.js'
  }
}

Usage with all available options set

nodemon: {
  dev: {
    script: 'index.js',
    options: {
      args: ['dev'],
      nodeArgs: ['--debug'],
      callback: function (nodemon) {
        nodemon.on('log', function (event) {
          console.log(event.colour);
        });
      },
      env: {
        PORT: '8181'
      },
      cwd: __dirname,
      ignore: ['node_modules/**'],
      ext: 'js,coffee',
      watch: ['server'],
      delay: 1000,
      legacyWatch: true
    }
  },
  exec: {
    options: {
      exec: 'less'
    }
  }
}

Advanced Usage

A common use case is to run nodemon with other tasks concurrently. It is also common to open a browser tab when starting a server, and reload that tab when the server code changes. These workflows can be achieved with the following config, which uses a custom options.callback function, and grunt-concurrent to run nodemon, node-inspector, and watch in a single terminal tab:

concurrent: {
  dev: {
    tasks: ['nodemon', 'node-inspector', 'watch'],
    options: {
      logConcurrentOutput: true
    }
  }
},
nodemon: {
  dev: {
    script: 'index.js',
    options: {
      nodeArgs: ['--debug'],
      env: {
        PORT: '5455'
      },
      // omit this property if you aren't serving HTML files and
      // don't want to open a browser tab on start
      callback: function (nodemon) {
        nodemon.on('log', function (event) {
          console.log(event.colour);
        });

        // opens browser on initial server start
        nodemon.on('config:update', function () {
          // Delay before server listens on port
          setTimeout(function() {
            require('open')('http://localhost:5455');
          }, 1000);
        });

        // refreshes browser when server reboots
        nodemon.on('restart', function () {
          // Delay before server listens on port
          setTimeout(function() {
            require('fs').writeFileSync('.rebooted', 'rebooted');
          }, 1000);
        });
      }
    }
  }
},
watch: {
  server: {
    files: ['.rebooted'],
    options: {
      livereload: true
    }
  }
}

Note that using the callback config above assumes you have open installed and are injecting a LiveReload script into your HTML file(s). You can use grunt-inject to inject the LiveReload script.

Required property

script

Type: String

Script that nodemon runs and restarts when changes are detected.

Options

args

Type: Array of Strings

List of arguments to be passed to your script.

nodeArgs

Type: Array of Strings

List of arguments to be passed to node. The most common argument is --debug or --debug-brk to start a debugging server.

callback

Type: Function Default:

function(nodemon) {
  // By default the nodemon output is logged
  nodemon.on('log', function(event) {
    console.log(event.colour);
  });
};

Callback which receives the nodemon object. This can be used to respond to changes in a running app, and then do cool things like LiveReload a web browser when the app restarts. See the nodemon docs for the full list of events you can tap into.

ignore

Type: Array of String globs Default: ['node_modules/**']

List of ignored files specified by a glob pattern relative to the watched folder. Here is an explanation of how to use the patterns to ignore files.

ext

Type: String Default: 'js'

String with comma separated file extensions to watch. By default, nodemon watches .js files.

watch

Type: Array of Strings Default: ['.']

List of folders to watch for changes. By default nodemon will traverse sub-directories, so there's no need in explicitly including sub-directories.

delay

Type: Number Default: 1000

Delay the restart of nodemon by a number of milliseconds when compiling a large amount of files so that the app doesn't needlessly restart after each file is changed.

legacyWatch

Type: Boolean Default: false

If you wish to force nodemon to start with the legacy watch method. See https://github.com/remy/nodemon/blob/master/faq.md#help-my-changes-arent-being-detected for more details.

cwd

Type: String

The current working directory to run your script from.

env

Type: Object

Hash of environment variables to pass to your script.

exec

Type: String

You can use nodemon to execute a command outside of node. Use this option to specify a command as a string with the argument being the script parameter above. You can read more on exec here.

Changelog

0.6.0 - Updated to nodemon 2.0.2.

0.3.0 - Updated to nodemon 1.2.0.

0.2.1 - Updated README on npmjs.org with correct options.

0.2.0 - Updated to nodemon 1.0, added new callback option.

Breaking changes:

• options.file is now script and is a required property. Some properties were changed to match nodemon: ignoredFiles -> ignore, watchedFolders -> watch, delayTime -> delay, watchedExtensions -> ext(now a string) to match nodemon.

0.1.2 - nodemon can now be listed as a dependency in the package.json and grunt-nodemon will resolve the nodemon.js file's location correctly.

0.1.1 - Added legacyWatch option thanks to @jonursenbach.

0.1.0 - Removed debug and debugBrk options as they are encapsulated by the nodeArgs option.

Breaking changes:

• Configs with the debug or debugBrk options will no longer work as expected. They simply need to be added to nodeArgs.

0.0.10 - Added nodeArgs option thanks to @eugeneiiim.

0.0.9 - Fixed bug when using cwd with ignoredFiles.

0.0.8 - Added error logging for incorrectly installed nodemon.

0.0.7 - Added debugBreak option thanks to @bchu.

0.0.6 - Added env option.

0.0.5 - Added cwd option.

0.0.4 - Added nodemon as a proper dependency.

0.0.3 - Uses local version of nodemon for convenience and versioning.

0.0.2 - Removes .nodemonignore if it was previously generated and then the ignoredFiles option is removed.

0.0.1 - Added warning if nodemon isn't installed as a global module.

0.0.0 - Initial release