About Watchdog

Watchdog is a PHP class implementing inotify which watches for changes to files in any given number of directories specified in the input. It will not recursively check directories, so you must implicitely specify each directory you want watched.

Although it was developed for the purpose of monitoring dynamic css files for changes and auto-regenerating their output, it can easily be transformed into a watchdog for just about anything.

Watchdog currently supports compilation of Stylus, SASS, LESS, Jade, and HAML. If you have anything else you'd like added to the list, let me know!

Usage

./watchdog --types styl --watch /path/to/public/css/
./watchdog --types styl,sass,scss,less,jade,haml --watch /path/to/public/css/
./watchdog --types styl,less --watch /path/to/public/css/ --ignore mixins.less 
./watchdog --types less --watch /path/to/public/css/less/ --ignore mixins.less --
./watchdog --config /path/to/config
./watchdog --help

Example Config File (written in PHP, requires return):

<?php
return array(
    'types' => array('sass', 'scss', 'less', 'styl', 'jade', 'haml'),
    'watch' => array(
        '/path/to/public/css',
        '/path/to/alternate/css'
    ),
    'minify' => true,
    'ignore' => array()
);

Example Config File demonstrating all settings:

<?php
return array(
    'types' => array('sass', 'scss', 'less', 'styl', 'jade', 'haml'),
    'watch' => array(
        // key => val equivalent to input file for compilation => output file (result of compiling)
        '/path/to/public/css/dynamic/' => '/path/to/public/css/',
        // assume the input path and output path are the same
        '/path/to/alternate/css',
        // watch a specific file
        '/path/to/public/html/view.jade'
    ),
    'minify' => true,
    'ignore' => array(
        'mixins.less'
    )
);

Settings

The configuration file is slightly more customizable than specifying arguments via the command line. For starters, you can specify both the input file/directory and output file/directory of watched files/directories which comes in handy if you store your files in two separate directories.

Requirements

Watchdog requires you to have the PHP PEAR library inotify installed. If you have PEAR installed, you may run the following from the command line to install inotify:

sudo pecl install inotify

Prerequisites

Watchdog is merely an intermediary between you and your dynamic CSS files. It does not handle any form of parsing internally, and subsequently passes off proper executable commands to the command line for compiling. For these reasons, watchdog assumes that you have one or more of the following modules installed (depending on your particular necessities):

• SASS
• LESS
• Stylus
• Jade
• HAML

Each of these applications have their own set of dependencies.

• SASS - Requires Ruby and RubyGems
• LESS - Requires nodejs and npm
• Stylus - Requires nodejs and npm
• Jade - Requires nodejs and npm
• HAML - Requires Ruby and RubyGems

"sass: command not found"

If you are receiving the error "sass: command not found", you will need to ensure you have the SASS ruby gem installed:

sudo gem install sass`

"lessc: command not found"

If you are receiving the error "lessc: command not found", you will need to ensure you have the LESS npm module installed globally:

sudo npm install -g less

We specify the global option because you would otherwise be left with modules installed to your base installation directory.

"stylus: command not found"

If you are receiving the error "stylus: command not found", you will need to ensure you have the stylus npm module installed globally:

sudo npm install -g stylus

We specify the global option because you would otherwise be left with modules installed to your base installation directory.

"jade: command not found"

If you are receiving the error "jade: command not found", you will need to ensure you have the Jade npm module installed globally:

sudo npm install -g jade`

"haml: command not found"

If you are receiving the error "haml: command not found", you will need to ensure you have the HAML ruby gem installed:

sudo gem install haml-edge`

We specify the global option because you would otherwise be left with modules installed to your base installation directory.

I'm still getting command not found

For Node.JS NPM modules (stylus, less, and jade), ensure you have the NODE_PATH variable appropriately set:

echo 'export NODE_PATH=/usr/local/lib/node_modules' >> ~/.profile
source ~/.profile