grunt-server-monitor v3.0.0

Reloads NodeJS server on file changes. The end.

• V3 uses ES6: You'll need NodeJS v5.x or use "--harmony" flags with grunt

• Tip: Use "r" to manually restart the server once it is running. (you'll have to press "enter")

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.5

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-server-monitor --save-dev

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

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-server-monitor');

Overview

1. In your project's Gruntfile, add a section named monitor to the data object passed into grunt.initConfig().
2. The monitor relies on watch tasks to trigger reloads. Add a watch:server target to watch your server files and directories.
3. We need to run a server and a watch process, this requires grunt-concurrent. Leaving us with:

Typical Setup

module.exports = function (grunt) {
    grunt.initConfig({
        monitor: {
            default: {
                options: {
                    script: 'app.js',
                    timeout: 2,
					ignoreLogs: 0,
                    logsPerConnect: 1,
                    nodes: 1,
                    environmentVariables: '', //ie 'ENVIRONMENT=production',
                    nodeArgs: '', //ie '--harmony --debug'
                    scriptArgs: ''
                }
            }
        },
        watch: {
            server: {
                files: ['*.js', 'lib/**/*.js'],
                tasks: ['monitor'],
                options: {
                    spawn: false
                }
            },
        },
        concurrent: {
            default: {
                tasks: ['monitor', 'watch'],
                options: {
                    logConcurrentOutput: true
                }
            }
        }
    });

    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-concurrent');
    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
    grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-server-monitor');

    grunt.registerTask('default', ['concurrent']);
};

Options

options.script

Type: String Default value: 'index.js'

The script which loads your server or bootstraps your package.

options.timeout

Type: Int Default value: 0 (none)

Amount of seconds to wait for server to connect before timing out gracefully.

options.logsPerConnect

Type: Int Default value: 1

The number of logs which must occur to determine a connection has been made to the server.

The server monitor will distinguish between error logs and regular logs, error logs are ignored in this count.

options.ignoreLogs

Type: Int Default value: 0

Optionally ignore this number of logs at start. (In case your script outputs general startup info)

options.nodes

Type: Int Default value: 1

The amount of different node servers that the script will be running.

options.environmentVariables

Type: String Default value: ''

Environment specific settings to be passed to NodeJS on the command line.

options.nodeArgs

Type: String Default value: ''

Arguments to be sent to NodeJS on the command line.

options.scriptArgs

Type: String Default value: ''

Arguments to be passed to the script at options.script.

Arguments and Environment Variables

The options environmentVariables, nodeArgs, scriptArgs are assembled into a command with the script option similar to

$ [environmentVariables] node [nodeArgs] [script] [scriptArgs]

Allowing you to have full control: The following options...

var options: {
    script: 'app.js',
    timeout: 2,
	ignoreLogs: 0,
    logsPerConnect: 1,
    nodes: 1,
    environmentVariables: 'ENVIRONMENT=dev',
    nodeArgs: '--harmony --debug',
    scriptArgs: '-f foo'
};

...will create the following command

$ ENVIRONMENT=dev node --harmony --debug app.js -f "foo"

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.

Release History

• v3.0.0 - completely rebuilt, more effiicient signaling, error handling, and can restart with "r"
• v0.2.2 - added options to give full control over script at startup
• v0.2.0 - stable