Rereload

Rereload is a lightweight Node.js package that watches a specified folder for file changes and automatically restarts a server script when changes are detected. It's perfect for development environments where you want your server to reflect code changes immediately without manual restarts.

Features

• 🔍 Watch a specified folder for file changes
• 🔄 Automatically restart your server script on file changes
• ⚙️ Easy configuration through a JSON file
• 🚀 Simple to use with npm scripts or as a global command

Installation

You can install Rereload globally:

npm install -g rereload

Or as a dev dependency in your project:

npm install --save-dev rereload

Configuration

Create a watcher-config.json file in your project root with the following structure:

{
  "folderToWatch": "./src",
  "serverScript": "./src/server.js"
}

• folderToWatch: The directory to watch for changes
• serverScript: The path to your server script that should be restarted on changes

Usage

As a global command

If installed globally, you can run Rereload from any directory containing a watcher-config.json:

rereload

Using npx

You can use npx to run Rereload without installing it:

npx rereload

As a npm script

Add a script to your package.json:

"scripts": {
  "dev": "rereload"
}

Then run:

npm run dev

How It Works

1. Rereload reads the watcher-config.json file in your project root.
2. It starts watching the specified folder for any file changes.
3. When a change is detected, it automatically restarts your server script.
4. The process continues running until you stop it (usually with Ctrl+C).

Troubleshooting

• Ensure your watcher-config.json is in the root directory of your project.
• Check that the paths in watcher-config.json are correct relative to your project structure.
• If your server isn't restarting, ensure that file changes are being saved in the watched folder.