grunt

What is grunt?

Grunt is a JavaScript task runner that automates repetitive tasks such as minification, compilation, unit testing, linting, and more. It is highly configurable and uses a Gruntfile to define tasks and load plugins.

What are grunt's main functionalities?

Task Automation

This feature allows you to automate tasks such as minification. The provided code sample demonstrates how to configure Grunt to use the 'uglify' plugin to minify JavaScript files.

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  grunt.initConfig({
    pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
    uglify: {
      options: {
        banner: '/*! <%= pkg.name %> <%= grunt.template.today("yyyy-mm-dd") %> */\n'
      },
      build: {
        src: 'src/<%= pkg.name %>.js',
        dest: 'build/<%= pkg.name %>.min.js'
      }
    }
  });
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['uglify']);
};

File Watching

Grunt can watch files and execute tasks when they change. The code sample shows how to configure Grunt to watch JavaScript files and run the 'jshint' task whenever a file changes.

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  grunt.initConfig({
    watch: {
      scripts: {
        files: ['**/*.js'],
        tasks: ['jshint'],
        options: {
          spawn: false,
        },
      },
    },
  });
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['watch']);
};

Compilation

Grunt can compile preprocessor languages like Sass into CSS. The code sample demonstrates how to configure Grunt to compile a Sass file into a CSS file using the 'grunt-contrib-sass' plugin.

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  grunt.initConfig({
    sass: {
      dist: {
        files: {
          'main.css': 'main.scss'
        }
      }
    }
  });
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['sass']);
};

Other packages similar to grunt

gulp

Gulp is another JavaScript task runner that uses a code-over-configuration approach, making it more flexible and easier to read than Grunt. It uses streams and code to define tasks, which can result in faster build times.

webpack

Webpack is a module bundler primarily for JavaScript, but it can transform front-end assets like HTML, CSS, and images if the corresponding loaders are included. It is more powerful and complex than Grunt, often used for modern JavaScript applications.

broccoli

Broccoli is a JavaScript build tool that focuses on fast rebuilds and a simple, composable API. It is particularly well-suited for large projects where build performance is critical.

README

grunt

Grunt is a task-based command line build tool for JavaScript projects.

Introduction

Check out our getting started guide for a primer on how to use grunt.

Documentation

Take a look at our wiki for all the things.

Support / Contributing

Before you make an issue, please read our contribution guide.

You can find the grunt team in #grunt on irc.freenode.net.

Release History

(Until v1.0.0, this will only be updated when major or breaking changes are made)

• 2012/06/25 - v0.3.10 - Updating a few dependencies to work with node 0.8.x (0.6.x should still work).
• 2012/04/18 - v0.3.9 - The min task (via the uglify helper) now appends a semicolon to the end of the generated source.
• 2012/04/06 - v0.3.8 - Init template tweaks. Anchor links added to docs, along with grunt-internal docs task to generate them. The watch task now supports multiple targets with separate wildcards and tasks. Locally-installed grunt will override global grunt even when run from global "grunt" script.
• 2012/04/01 - v0.3.7 - Tweaked the behavior of the init template exports.warnOn property and added more init template documentation. Fixed duplicate PhantomJS debug output in qunit task. Added useful nodeunit and qunit comments into init template generated test .js files.
• 2012/03/28 - v0.3.6 - Fixed a --help screen issue, a few grunt plugin related issues, and attempted to improve the overall grunt plugin docs and API.
• 2012/03/27 - v0.3.5 - Fixed a handful of weird Windows issues. Changed default m/d/yyyy dates to yyyy-mm-dd ISO 8601. Fixed some init task bugs, docs errata, and added a lot more content to the init task docs.
• 2012/03/26 - v0.3.3 - Added a "gruntfile" init template. Create a basic Gruntfile in seconds with grunt init:gruntfile. A few other minor fixes.
• 2012/03/25 - v0.3.2 - Init tasks can now specify a file matching wildcard for the initial "files exist" warning. The jQuery init template now has jQuery 1.7.2. Fixed a bug in the task.expand* methods.
• 2012/03/25 - v0.3.1 - Added a few methods. Substantially reworked the init task and templates.
• 2012/03/23 - v0.3.0 - Too many changes to list. But in brief: completely reorganized the API, removed all globals, added docs and examples for nearly everything, built a preliminary plugin system (that still needs to be tested). PLEASE RTFM OK? THX U.
• 2012/02/03 - v0.2.14 - Added a server task (which starts a static webserver for your tasks). The qunit task now uses PhantomJS instead of Zombie.js (4768 of 4971 jQuery unit test pass, neat), and supports both file wildcards as well as http:// or https:// urls. (static webserver, anyone?). Grunt should no longer "hang" when done.
• 2012/01/29 - v0.2.5 - Added a "qunit" task as well as an init "jquery" template (as of now, there are also "node" and "commonjs" init templates).
• 2012/01/22 - v0.2.1 - Removed handlebars, templates are universally handled by underscore now. Changed init task template tags from <% %> to {% %}. Banners beginning with /*! will no longer be stripped.
• 2012/01/22 - v0.2.0 - Added "init" task with a sample template, reworked a lot of code. Hopefully it's backwards-compatible.
• 2012/01/11 - v0.1.0 - Initial release.

License

Copyright (c) 2012 "Cowboy" Ben Alman, contributors Licensed under the MIT license.
https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt/blob/master/LICENSE-MIT