Runna - process based task runner for Node

Features

• Fast and simple.
• NPM scripts compatible - there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
• Process based - failure of one task does not have to bring the whole process down.
• Watcher included - built-in consistent performant recursive watching.

Usage

Usage:
  runna <chain> [options]

Options:
  -p <projects>            Run with projects; a comma separated list.
  -w [<path-to-watch>]     Default is current.
  -v                       Verbose mode (debug).
  -o                       Use polling when watching (useful when using Docker).

Quck start

STEP 1: Define your usual NPM scripts

{
  "scripts": {
    "clean": "rimraf ./dist",
    "create-dist-dir": "mkdirp ./dist",
    "build:js": "browserify ./src/index.js -o ./dist/index.js -t [ babelify --presets [ babel-preset-env ] ]",
    "copy:html": "copyfiles --flat ./src/index.html ./dist",
    "serve": "runna-webserver -w ./dist",
    "serve:stop": "runna-webserver -x",
    "serve:reload": "runna-webserver -r"
  }
}

STEP 2: Define your build chain

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "runna [ clean - create-dist-dir - build:js copy:html ]"
  }
}

The above build chain translates to:

clean             | npm run clean
-                 | wait for all previous scripts to complete
create-dist-dir   | npm run create-dist-dir
-                 | wait for all previous scripts to complete
build:js          | npm run build:js
copy:html         | npm run copy:html

STEP 3: Run your chain

npm run build

And that's it! The build chain executes all scripts as background processes. Note that the - symbol allows to wait for all the previous scripts to complete and behaves consistently on all OSes.

Advanced usage

Interactive development mode

The development mode allows triggering chain upon a file change. To enable watch mode, simply add -w parameter. Let's define develop chain like so:

{
  "scripts": {
    "develop": "runna [ +serve clean - create-dist-dir - build:js copy:html - serve:reload ] -w",
  }
}

The + symbol before a script name indicates, that the script should be run in the backgroud. Waiting for all previous tasks to complete with - igonres all background scripts automatically.

Now, let's define our observe rules like so:

{
  "observe": {
    "build:js - serve:reload": [
      "src/**/*.js"
    ],
    "copy:html - serve:reload": [
      "src/**/*.html"
    ]
  }
}

Notes:

• Each rule is a chain that is executed whenever a file changes that matches one of the patterns in the array. Patterns must be relative to the current working directory, or the location specified as a -w <path-to-watch> parameter.
• Any chain with -w flag will be run at least once, before watching begins.
• Watching leverages recursive flag of fs.watch(), which greatly improves performance on Windows and OS X compared to packages based on Chokidar (e.g. onchange or watchify), especially for large projects.

$FILE variable

It is possible to pass a file path to a script, that triggeted a chain execution when in watch mode. To do so, use $FILE variable like so:

{
  "scripts": {
    "build:html": "node scripts/build-html $FILE",
  }
}

Notes:

• When in watch mode, the $FILE variable will be replaced with the full path of the file that triggered the chain.
• When not in watch mode (this also applies to the first run when in watch mode), the $FILE will default to blank, so make sure your script handles it correctly (e.g. builds everything if no file is provided).

$PROJ variable

It is possible to run the same script for multiple sub-projects using the $PROJ variable. Let's define a project-based script like so:

{
  "scripts": {
    "build:js": "browserify ./src/$PROJ/index.js -o ./dist/$PROJ/index.js -t [ babelify --presets [ babel-preset-env ] ]"
  }
}

The presence of $PROJ placeholder enables project-based behaviour automatically. Let's update our develop chain to support projects. To do so, simply add -p parameter:

{
  "scripts": {
    "develop": "runna [ +serve clean - create-dist-dir - build:js copy:html - serve:reload ] -w -p red,blue"
  }
}

When running the above chain with npm run develop, the build:js script will be run twice, once for each project. Scripts that do not use $PROJ placeholder will only run once as per usual. Think of it as of two separate scripts: build:js::red and build:js::blue.

Let's update our observe rule accordingly:

{
  "observe": {
    "build:js - serve:reload": [
      "src/$PROJ/*.js",
      "src/foo/**/*.js"
    ]
  }
}

Notes:

• When a file changes on the path matching src/blue/*.js, the build:js script will be run only for the the blue project. The $PROJ placeholder will be replaced with the actual folder name.
• When a file changes on the path matching src/foo/**/*.js, the build:js script will be run for all projects provided (in this case red and blue).
• If no projects are provided with -p option, all project-based scripts are ignored.