gulp-dir

A simple tool that allows you to split up your Gulp build script into several concise modules. It also provides a convenient interface to create meta-tasks (task groups).

Install

$ npm install gulp-dir

Usage

require('gulp-dir')('directory/');

gulp-dir loads modules out of the specified directory. This allows you to create very concise and modular build scripts. The approach is similar to the *nix conf.d/ configuration directory pattern. Typically, each of these files will contain a small number of related task definitions; for example, one task module might contain lint, watch and all tasks for your app's JavaScript code, while another would contain tasks for your LESS/CSS.

All that is required to add a script to the build is to drop it into the directory and re-run your Gulp build. gulp-dir will automatically find the new script and incorporate it in the build process.

Meta-Tasks (task groups)

Meta-tasks are simply wrapper tasks that depend on several other tasks, effectively creating a task group. Multiple meta-tasks can be created, and each module can contribute one task to each meta-task. To register a task as part of a meta-task, a module should export an object mapping the name of the target meta-task to the name of the defined subtask:

Task module:

var gulp = require('gulp');  
gulp.task('app:lint', ... );  
gulp.task('app', ... );  
gulp.task('app:watch', ... );  
module.exports = {  
  all: 'app',  
  watch: 'app:watch'  
};

In the above example, the app task defined in the task module will be used as a dependency when defining the all meta-task. Likewise, the app:watch task will be used as a dependency for the watch meta-task. It is not necessary for all of your tasks to join meta-tasks.

Meta-tasks are functionally no different from normal tasks. They are executed in the same way as any other Gulp task:

$ gulp all  
$ gulp watch

Meta-tasks can also be wrapped further into top-level tasks:

var gulp = require('gulp');  
require('gulp-dir')('gulp/');  
gulp.task('default', ['all', 'watch']);  
gulp.task('production', ['all']);

Note that if you create a meta-task called default it will be run when you execute gulp with no arguments.

Parameters

If you want to pass flags (e.g. production) or other parameters to your modules, simply pass those parameters to the main gulp-dir module function as the second parameter. To consume the parameters within a module, export a function rather than an object literal. The parameters will be passed through:

gulpfile.js:

require('gulp-dir')('gulp/', {  
  production: true  
});

Task module:

var gulp = require('gulp');  
module.exports = function(flags) {  
  gulp.task('app:lint', ... );  
  gulp.task('app', ... );  
  gulp.task('app:watch', ... );  
  console.log(flags.production); // prints 'true'  
  return {  
    all: 'app',  
    watch: 'app:watch'  
  };  
};

Parameters of any type can be used; they are passed as-is using module.apply(module, args). Multiple parameters can be passed by wrapping them in an array.

Just like typical Gulp usage, if you want a meta-task to wait for the completion of one of its subtasks, follow the asynchronous task hinting rules as described in the Gulp api docs. All the subtasks within a meta-task will be executed concurrently, but the meta-task will wait for blocking subtasks before exiting.

It is possible to make a task in one module depend on a task in another module. Since all the tasks are defined by your scripts, any task can depend on any other task like normal.