As an avid hacker, I understand that there are times when you find yourself repeatedly issuing the same commands, and it can become frustrating. Luckily, there are tools available to automate these repetitive tasks and simplify your life. One such tool that stands out for its ease of use and efficiency is Watchexec.
Watchexec is a standalone tool that monitors a specified path and triggers a command whenever it detects changes in one or more files. It is compatible with macOS, Linux, and Windows, allowing you to monitor the current directory and its subdirectories.
With Watchexec, you can automate tasks like running unit tests, executing linters, or rebuilding files. Let me provide you with an example to illustrate its functionality. Suppose you are developing a Node.js website.
By monitoring modifications in your project’s source files, you can automatically trigger a build of your site whenever changes occur:
watchexec -e js,css,html npm run build
Similarly, if you want to call or restart python server.py whenever any Python file in the current directory (including subdirectories) is modified, you can use the following command:
watchexec -r -e py -- python server.py
To install Watchexec, you have several options available through your OS package manager or by directly obtaining the binaries, as shown below:
cargo install watchexec-cli
If you need further assistance, the documentation is available to guide you.
