Create symbolic links.
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-contrib-symlink --save-dev
Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-symlink');
Run this task with the grunt symlink
command.
Task targets, files and options may be specified according to the grunt Configuring tasks guide. Pay special attention to the Building the files object dynamically section, which explains how to create many src-dest file mappings all at once.
Note that the (Windows feature only) symlink mode (file, dir) is determined automatically based on the src file type, but takes into account dirmode parameter and allows using junctions instead of dir symlinks.
symlink: {
options: {
// Enable having dir symlink or junction for Windows
dirmode: 'dir'
// Enable overwrite to delete symlinks before recreating them
overwrite: false,
// Enable force to overwrite symlinks outside the current working directory
force: false
},
// The "build/target.txt" symlink will be created and linked to
// "source/target.txt". It should appear like this in a file listing:
// build/target.txt -> ../source/target.txt
explicit: {
src: 'source/target.txt',
dest: 'build/target.txt'
},
// These examples using "expand" to generate src-dest file mappings:
// http://gruntjs.com/configuring-tasks#building-the-files-object-dynamically
expanded: {
files: [
// All child files and directories in "source", starting with "foo-" will
// be symlinked into the "build" directory, with the leading "source"
// stripped off.
{
expand: true,
overwrite: false,
cwd: 'source',
src: ['foo-*'],
dest: 'build'
},
// All child directories in "source" will be symlinked (or junctioned on Windows only) into the "build"
// directory, with the leading "source" stripped off.
{
expand: true,
overwrite: false,
dirmode: 'junction',
cwd: 'source',
src: ['*'],
dest: 'build',
filter: 'isDirectory'
}
]
},
}
To override the overwrite option via the CLI pass it as an option
grunt symlink --overwrite
Make sure your command prompt has administrative privileges for standard symlinks, otherwise the task will not work. Junctions does not require administrative privileges but due to bug in old version of node (v0.10) they are required.
- 2016-02-28 v1.0.0 Added
force
option when overwriting a symlink outside the current working directory. - 2014-02-01 v0.3.0 Fixed symlinking to '.' Add Windows usage hints. Added error logging and force failure when unable to create a symlink
- 2013-07-26 v0.2.0 Initial release as rewritten, officially-maintained, contrib plugin.
- 2012-12-21 v0.1.1 Unofficial release.
- 2012-12-20 v0.1.0 Unofficial release.
Task submitted by "Cowboy" Ben Alman
This file was generated on Sun Feb 28 2016 20:26:42.