A neat wrapper around node.js fs.watch / fs.watchFile.
Node.js fs.watch
:
- Doesn't report filenames on mac.
- Doesn't report events at all when using editors like TextMate2 on mac.
- Sometimes report events twice.
- Has only one non-useful event:
rename
. - Has a lot of other issues
Node.js fs.watchFile
:
- Doesn't work on windows
- Almost as shitty in event tracking.
Chokidar resolves this problems.
It is used in brunch, socketstream, and tower.js and had proven itself in production env.
Install chokidar via node.js package manager:
npm install chokidar
Then just require the package in your code:
var chokidar = require('chokidar');
var watcher = chokidar.watch('file or dir', {ignored: /^\./, persistent: true});
watcher
.on('add', function(path) {console.log('File', path, 'has been added');})
.on('change', function(path) {console.log('File', path, 'has been changed');})
.on('unlink', function(path) {console.log('File', path, 'has been removed');})
.on('error', function(error) {console.error('Error happened', error);})
watcher.add('new-file');
watcher.add(['new-file-2', 'new-file-3']);
// Only needed if watching is persistent.
watcher.close();
chokidar.watch(paths, options)
: takes paths to be watched and options:options.ignored
(regexp or function) files to be ignored. Example:chokidar.watch('file', {ignored: /^\./})
.options.persistent
(default:false
). indicates whether the process should continue to run as long as files are being watched.
chokidar.watch()
produces an instance of FSWatcher
. Methods of FSWatcher
:
.add(file / files)
: add directories / files for tracking. Takes an array of strings (file paths) or just one path..on(event, callback)
: listen for an FS event. Available events:add
,change
,unlink
,error
. Also,all
is available which emitted for everyadd
,change
andunlink
..close()
: remove all listeners from watched files.
The MIT license.
Copyright (c) 2012 Paul Miller (http://paulmillr.com)
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.