.\" generated with Ronn/v0.7.3 .\" http://github.com/rtomayko/ronn/tree/0.7.3 . .TH "WATCHEXEC" "1" "April 2017" "" "" . .SH "NAME" \fBwatchexec\fR \- execute commands when watched files change . .SH "SYNOPSIS" watchexec [\fB\-\-exts\fR | \fB\-e\fR \fIextensions\fR]\.\.\. [\fB\-\-filter\fR | \fB\-f\fR \fIpattern\fR]\.\.\. [\fB\-\-ignore\fR | \fB\-i\fR \fIpattern\fR]\.\.\. [\fB\-\-watch\fR | \fB\-w\fR \fIpath\fR]\.\.\. [\fB\-\-restart\fR | \fB\-r\fR] [\fB\-\-clear\fR | \fB\-c\fR] [\fB\-\-postpone\fR | \fB\-p\fR] [\fB\-\-force\-poll\fR \fIinterval\fR] [\fB\-\-debug\fR | \fB\-d\fR] [\fB\-\-no\-vcs\-ignore\fR] [\fB\-\-no\-default\-ignore\fR] \fIcommand\fR [\fIargument\fR\.\.\.] . .SH "DESCRIPTION" Recursively monitors the current directory for changes, executing the command when a filesystem change is detected\. By default, watchexec uses efficient kernel\-level mechanisms to watch for changes\. . .P At startup, the specified \fIcommand\fR (passing any supplied \fIargument\fRs) is run once, and watchexec begins monitoring for changes\. . .SH "OPTIONS" . .TP \fIcommand\fR Command to run when watched files are modified, and at startup, unless \fB\-\-postpone\fR is specified\. All \fIargument\fRs are passed to \fIcommand\fR\. . .TP \fB\-e\fR, \fB\-\-exts\fR \fIextensions\fR Comma\-separated list of file extensions to filter by\. Leading dots are allowed (\.rs) are allowed\. (This is a shorthand for \fB\-f\fR)\. . .TP \fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-filter\fR \fIpattern\fR Ignores modifications from paths that do not match \fIpattern\fR\. This option can be specified multiple times, where a match on any given pattern causes the path to trigger \fIcommand\fR\. . .TP \fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-signal\fR Sends the specified signal (e\.g\. \fBSIGKILL\fR) to the child process\. Defaults to \fBSIGTERM\fR\. . .TP \fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-no\-shell\fR Execute command directly, do not wrap it in \fBsh \-c\fR resp\. \fBcmd\.exe /C\fR\. This is especially useful in combination with \fB\-\-signal\fR, as the signal is then send directly to the specified command\. While \fB\-\-no\-shell\fR is a little more performant than the default, it prevents using shell\-features like pipes and redirects\. . .TP \fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-ignore\fR \fIpattern\fR Ignores modifications from paths that match \fIpattern\fR\. This option can be specified multiple times, and a match on any pattern causes the path to be ignored\. . .TP \fB\-w\fR, \fB\-\-watch\fR \fIpath\fR Monitor a specific path for changes\. By default, the current working directory is watched\. This may be specified multiple times, where a change in any watched directory (and subdirectories) causes \fIcommand\fR to be executed\. . .TP \fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-restart\fR Terminates the child process group if it is still running when subsequent file modifications are detected\. By default, sends \fBSIGTERM\fR; use \fB\-\-kill\fR to send \fBSIGKILL\fR\. . .TP \fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-clear\fR Clears the screen before executing \fIcommand\fR\. . .TP \fB\-p\fR, \fB\-\-postpone\fR Postpone execution of \fIcommand\fR until the first file modification is detected\. . .TP \fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-debug\fR Prints diagnostic messages to STDERR . .TP \fB\-\-force\-poll\fR \fIinterval\fR Poll for changes every \fIinterval\fR ms instead of using system\-specific notification mechanisms (such as inotify)\. This is useful when you are monitoring NFS shares\. . .TP \fB\-\-no\-vcs\-ignore\fR Skip loading of version control system (VCS) ignore files\. By default, watchexec loads \.gitignore files in the current directory (or parent directories) and uses them to populate the ignore list\. . .TP \fB\-\-no\-default\-ignore\fR Skip default ignore statements\. By default, watchexec ignores common temporary files for you, for example \fB.*\.swp\fR, \fB*\.pyc\fR, and \fB\.DS_Store\fR . .SH "ENVIRONMENT" Processes started by watchexec have the \fB$WATCHEXEC_UPDATED_PATH\fR environment variable set to the path of the first modification observed\. In addition, the \fB$WATCHEXEC_COMMON_PATH\fR environment variable is set to the common path of all observed modifications\. . .SH "EXAMPLES" Rebuild a project when source files change: . .IP "" 4 . .nf $ watchexec make . .fi . .IP "" 0 . .P Watch all HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files for changes: . .IP "" 4 . .nf $ watchexec \-e html,css,js make . .fi . .IP "" 0 . .P Run tests when source files change, clearing the screen each time: . .IP "" 4 . .nf $ watchexec \-c make test . .fi . .IP "" 0 . .P Launch and restart a node\.js server: . .IP "" 4 . .nf $ watchexec \-r node app\.js . .fi . .IP "" 0 . .P Watch lib and src directories for changes, rebuilding each time: . .IP "" 4 . .nf $ watchexec \-w lib \-w src make . .fi . .IP "" 0