grunt-file-watch

This a fork of the original grunt-este-watch repository, and is created for the Kerberos.io repository. Source code have been minified: removed support for livereload, only rely on file changes, don't check if file is locked anymore, update styling.

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.0

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, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-file-watch --save-dev

Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-file-watch');

Watch task

Run this task with the grunt esteWatch command.

Settings

options.dirs

Note you have to specify only directory ('dir'), or directory recursively ('dir/**/') with all its subdirectories.

Type: Array.<string> Default:

[
  'bower_components/closure-library/**/',
  'bower_components/este-library/**/',
  '!bower_components/este-library/node_modules/**/',
  'client/**/{js,css}/**/'
]

List of watched directories

Examples

Watch and compile CoffeeScript.

esteWatch:
  options:
    # just a dirs, no file paths
    dirs: ['dirOne/**/', 'dirTwo/**/']

  'coffee': (filepath) ->
      files = [
        expand: true
        src: filepath
        ext: '.js'
      ];
      grunt.config ['coffee', 'app', 'files'], files
      ['coffee:app']

  # to define all
  '*': (filepath) ->
    return ['urequire:uberscoreUMD']

grunt.initConfig({
  esteWatch: {
    options: {
      dirs: ['bower_components/closure-library/**/',
      'bower_components/este-library/**/',
      '!bower_components/este-library/node_modules/**/',
      'client/**/{js,css}/**/']
    },
    coffee: function(filepath) {
      var files = [{
        expand: true,
        src: filepath,
        ext: '.js'
      }];
      grunt.config(['coffee', 'app', 'files'], files);
      grunt.config(['coffee2closure', 'app', 'files'], files);
      return ['coffee:app', 'coffee2closure:app'];
    },
    soy: function(filepath) {
      grunt.config(['esteTemplates', 'app'], filepath);
      return ['esteTemplates:app'];
    },
    js: function(filepath) {
      grunt.config(['esteUnitTests', 'app', 'src'], filepath);
      var tasks = ['esteDeps:all', 'esteUnitTests:app'];
      if (grunt.option('stage')) {
        tasks.push('esteBuilder:app');
      }
      return tasks;
    },
    styl: function(filepath) {
      grunt.config(['stylus', 'all', 'files'], [{
        expand: true,
        src: filepath,
        ext: '.css'
      }]);
      return ['stylus:all', 'stylus:app'];
    },
    css: function(filepath) {
      if (grunt.option('stage')) {
        return 'cssmin:app';
      }
    }
  }
});

FAQs

What's wrong with official grunt-contrib-watch?

It's slow and buggy, because it uses combination fs.fileWatch and fs.watch, for historical reason. From Node 0.9.2+, fs.watch is ok.

github.com/steida/este needs maximum performance and stability, so that's why I had to create yet another Node.js file watcher. This watcher is continuously tested on Mac, Linux, Win platforms.

grunt-contrib-watch Issues

• Strange "Abort trap: 6" exceptions.
• File added in new directory isn't detected.
• LiveReload console.log mess during livereloading.
• Polling to much files. Etc.

Note about editors atomic save

Node.js fs.watch sometimes does not work with editors atomic save. For example, Node.js v0.10.17 works while v0.10.18 doesn't. Fix for SublimeText is easy, just disable it via "atomic_save": false.

License

Copyright (c) 2013 Daniel Steigerwald

Licensed under the MIT license.