Run predefined tasks whenever watched file patterns are added, changed or deleted.
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, install this plugin with this command:
npm install grunt-contrib-watch --save-dev
Run this task with the grunt watch
command.
Inside your Gruntfile.js
file, add a section named watch
. This section specifies the files to watch, tasks to run when an event occurs and the options used.
There are a number of options available. Please review the minimatch options here. As well as some additional options as follows:
Type: String|Array
This defines what file patterns this task will watch. Can be a string or an array of files and/or minimatch patterns.
Type: String|Array
This defines which tasks to run when a watched file event occurs.
Type: boolean
Default: false
As files are modified this watch task will spawn tasks in child processes. The default behavior will only spawn a new child process per target when the previous process has finished. Set the interrupt
option to true to terminate the previous process and spawn a new one upon later changes.
Example:
watch: {
scripts: {
files: '**/*.js',
tasks: ['jshint'],
options: {
interrupt: true
}
}
}
Type: Integer
Default: 500
How long to wait before emitting events in succession for the same filepath and status. For example if your Gruntfile.js
file was changed
, a changed
event will only fire again after the given milliseconds.
Example:
watch: {
scripts: {
files: '**/*.js',
tasks: ['jshint'],
options: {
debounceDelay: 250
}
}
}
Type: Integer
Default: 100
The interval
is passed to fs.watchFile
. Since interval
is only used by fs.watchFile
and this watcher also uses fs.watch
; it is recommended to ignore this option. Default is 100ms.
// Simple config to run jshint any time a file is added, changed or deleted
grunt.initConfig({
watch: {
files: '**/*',
tasks: ['jshint']
}
});
// Advanced config. Run specific tasks when specific files are added, changed or deleted.
grunt.initConfig({
watch: {
gruntfile: {
files: 'Gruntfile.js',
tasks: ['jshint:gruntfile'],
options: {
nocase: true
}
},
src: {
files: ['lib/*.js', 'css/**/*.scss', '!lib/dontwatch.js'],
tasks: ['default']
},
test: {
files: '<%= jshint.test.src %>',
tasks: ['jshint:test', 'qunit']
}
}
});
This is because of your system's max opened file limit. For OSX the default is very low (256). Temporarily increase your limit with ulimit -n 10480
, the number being the new max limit.
Yes. Although grunt-contrib-watch
is a replacement watch task for Grunt v0.4, version [email protected]
is compatible with Grunt v0.3. grunt-contrib-watch >= 0.2.x
is *only compatible and recommended to use with Grunt v0.4.
Likely because of an enthusiastic pattern trying to watch thousands of files. Such as '**/*.js'
but forgetting to exclude the node_modules
folder with '!node_modules/**/*.js'
. Try grouping your files within a subfolder or be more explicit with your file matching pattern.
- 2013-01-17 v0.2.0rc7 Updating grunt/gruntplugin dependencies to rc6. Changing in-development grunt/gruntplugin dependency versions from tilde version ranges to specific versions.
- 2013-01-08 v0.2.0rc5 Updating to work with grunt v0.4.0rc5.
- 2012-12-14 v0.2.0a Conversion to grunt v0.4 conventions. Remove node v0.6 and grunt v0.3 support. Allow watch task to be renamed. Use grunt.util.spawn "grunt" option. Updated to [email protected], forceWatchMethod option removed.
- 2012-10-31 v0.1.4 Prevent watch from spawning duplicate watch tasks
- 2012-10-27 v0.1.3 Better method to spawn the grunt bin Bump gaze to v0.2.0. Better handles some events and new option forceWatchMethod Only support Node.js >= v0.8
- 2012-10-16 v0.1.2 Only spawn a process per task one at a time Add interrupt option to cancel previous spawned process Grunt v0.3 compatibility changes
- 2012-10-15 v0.1.1 Fallback to global grunt bin if local doesnt exist. Fatal if bin cannot be found Update to gaze 0.1.6
- 2012-10-07 v0.1.0 Release watch task Remove spawn from helper Run on Grunt v0.4
Task submitted by Kyle Robinson Young
This file was generated on Tue Jan 22 2013 12:59:24.