less-watch-compiler

    

Dead Simple LESS CSS Watch Compiler
===================

A command that watches folders(and subfolders) for file changes and automatically compile the less css files into css. This is a file system watcher and compiler. It also keep track of a dependency tree and recompiles the parent if an imported (child) LESS file is changed.

Parts of this script is modified from Mikeal Rogers's watch script (https://github.com/mikeal/watch)

Prerequisites

>The commands below may need to be prefixed with sudo depending upon your system

Install LESS and make sure the lessc binary is accessible to the script. Installing LESS with the -g(global) flag will make the binary accessible to your system.

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``bash
yarn global add less
`

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`bash
npm install -g less
`

Installation

>The commands below may need to be prefixed with sudo depending upon your system

Install the less-watch-compiler command globally.

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`bash
yarn global add less-watch-compiler
`

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`bash
npm install -g less-watch-compiler
`

Usage

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You need to pass in the minimum 2 parameters - and . First parameter is the source folder to watch for changes and second is the output folder in which the css files will be compiled

Usage:
`bash
less-watch-compiler [options]
`

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If you pass in the 3rd optional parameter, Any file change will trigger only to compile the main file specified in the 3rd parameter.
Assuming the 3rd is "main.less"

Usage:
`bash
less-watch-compiler [options] [main-file]
`

Basic example


`
root
└──src
│ └── main.less
│ └── aux.less
└──dist
└── main.css
`

The project can be compiled with the following command:
`bash
less-watch-compiler src dist main.less
`

Configuration File

By default the the configuration file is loaded from ./less-watch-compiler.config.json but can also be specified by the --config option.

#### Example using the project tree laid out in the previous example

less-watch-compiler.config.json
`json
{
"watchFolder": "src",
"outputFolder": "dist",
"mainFile": "main.less"
}
`
The project can be compiled with the following command:
`bash
less-watch-compiler
`

All configuration file options


`json
{
"watchFolder": "",
"outputFolder": "",
"mainFile": "",
"includeHidden": false,
"sourceMap": false,
"plugins": "plugin1,plugin2",
"lessArgs": "option1=1,option2=2",
"runOnce": false,
"enableJs": true
}
`

Options:

-h, --help output usage information
-V, --version output the version number
--main-file Specify as the file to always re-compile e.g. '--main-file style.less'.
--config Custom configuration file path. (default: "less-watch-compiler.config.json")
--run-once Run the compiler once without waiting for additional changes.
--include-hidden Don't ignore files beginning with a '.' or a '_'
--enable-js Less.js Option: To enable inline JavaScript in less files.
--source-map Less.js Option: To generate source map for css files.
--plugins , Less.js Option: To specify plugins separated by commas.
--less-args =,= Less.js Option: To specify any other less options e.g. '--less-args math=strict,strict-units=on,include-path=./dir1\;./dir2'.

Please note:

* By default, "minified" is turned on to always compress/minify output. You can set the minification to false by adding "minified":false in the config file.
* By default, "sourceMap" is turned off. You can generating sourcemap to true by adding "sourceMap":true in the config file.
* By default, this script only compiles files with .less extension. More file extensions can be added by modifying the allowedExtensions array in config.json.
* Files that start with underscores _style.css or period .style.css are ignored. This behavior can be changed by adding "includeHidden:true in the config file.
* When --run-once used, compilation will fail on first error

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Alternativelly, you can checkout the code and run things locally like this:

`bash
node less-watch-compiler.js [options]
`

To run unit tests: yarn test or npm test` (see test/test.js).

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute. [Contribute].