vim-ale/watchexec

title, homepage, tagline

title	homepage	tagline
watchexec	https://github.com/watchexec/watchexec	watchexec is a simple, standalone tool that watches a path and runs a command whenever it detects modifications.

Updating watchexec

webi watchexec@stable

Use the @beta tag for pre-releases.

Cheat Sheet

watchexec runs a given command when any files in watched directories change.
It respects .[git]ignore.

The full --help detailed and very useful. Here's the shortlist of what I find most useful:

-w, --watch     ./src/          watch the given directory
-e, --exts      js,html,css     watch only the given extensions
-i, --ignore    '*.md'          do not watch the given pattern
-d, --debounce  5000            the minimum number of milleseconds
                                    to wait between changes

-r, --restart                   restart the process (for servers and such)
-s, --signal    SIGHUP          like -r, but with a signal (ex: SIGHUP)
-c, --clear                     clear the screen between command runs
-W  (wait)                      ignore all changes while the command runs

--              npm start       what command to run, which its arguments

--no-ignore                     disregard both .ignore and .gitignore
--no-vcs-ignore                 disregard only .gitignore
--no-default-ignore             disregard built-in ignore lists

How to use

Example: List the directory when any files change.

watchexec -c -- ls -lah

Advanced Usage Example

Here's a "kitchen sink" example.

watchexec -c -r -s SIGKILL -d 2000 -W --verbose \
    -w ./src -w ./lib -w ./server.js \
    -e ts,js,sass,css,html \
    -i '.git' '*.min.js' -i '*.min.css' \
    -- npm run build

How to use (Node, Go, Rust, rsync)

These examples show how you might use this for builds, servers, and publishing or deploying.

# Node / npm
watchexec -W -- npm run build
watchexec -r -- npm start

# Golang
watchexec -- go build .
watchexec -r -- go run .

# Rust
watchexec -- cargo build --bin
watchexec -r -- cargo run --bin

# rsync (local copy)
watchexec -- rsync -avhP ./ ./srv/MY_PROJECT/

# rsync (remote publish)
watchexec -- rsync -avhP ./ app@example.com:~/srv/MY_PROJECT/