watchify

What is watchify?

Watchify is a browserify plugin that enables fast incremental bundling. It watches your files and updates the bundle whenever any of the source files change, making it ideal for development environments where quick feedback is essential.

What are watchify's main functionalities?

Incremental Bundling

This feature allows you to set up a watch on your files so that any changes trigger a rebundling process. The code sample demonstrates how to use watchify with browserify to watch for changes in 'main.js' and update 'bundle.js' accordingly.

const watchify = require('watchify');
const browserify = require('browserify');
const fs = require('fs');

const b = browserify({
  entries: ['main.js'],
  cache: {},
  packageCache: {},
  plugin: [watchify]
});

b.on('update', bundle);
bundle();

function bundle() {
  b.bundle().pipe(fs.createWriteStream('bundle.js'));
}

Custom Watch Options

Watchify allows you to customize the watch options, such as setting a delay before rebundling. The code sample shows how to set a custom delay of 1000 milliseconds before the rebundling process starts.

const watchify = require('watchify');
const browserify = require('browserify');
const fs = require('fs');

const customOpts = {
  entries: ['main.js'],
  cache: {},
  packageCache: {},
  plugin: [watchify],
  delay: 1000 // Custom delay before rebundling
};

const b = browserify(customOpts);

b.on('update', bundle);
bundle();

function bundle() {
  b.bundle().pipe(fs.createWriteStream('bundle.js'));
}

Other packages similar to watchify

gulp-watch

Gulp-watch is a file watcher specifically designed for use with Gulp. It allows you to watch files and run Gulp tasks when changes are detected. Unlike watchify, which is tightly integrated with browserify, gulp-watch is more general-purpose and can be used with any Gulp task.

chokidar

Chokidar is a highly efficient file watcher that can be used to watch files and directories for changes. It is more flexible than watchify as it is not tied to any specific bundler and can be used in a variety of scenarios. However, it requires more setup to achieve the same functionality as watchify when used with browserify.

webpack

Webpack is a powerful module bundler that includes built-in file watching capabilities. It can be configured to watch files and recompile the bundle when changes are detected. While it offers more features and flexibility compared to watchify, it also comes with a steeper learning curve.

README

watchify

watch mode for browserify builds

Update any source file and your browserify bundle will be recompiled on the spot.

example

Use watchify with all the same arguments as browserify except that -o is mandatory:

$ watchify main.js -o static/bundle.js

Now as you update files, static/bundle.js will be automatically re-compiled on the fly.

You can use -v to get more verbose output to show when a file was written:

$ watchify browser.js -d -o static/bundle.js -v
610598 bytes written to static/bundle.js
610606 bytes written to static/bundle.js
610597 bytes written to static/bundle.js
610606 bytes written to static/bundle.js
610597 bytes written to static/bundle.js
610597 bytes written to static/bundle.js

usage

All the bundle options are the same as the browserify command except for -v.

methods

var watchify = require('watchify')

var w = watchify(opts)

Create a browserify bundle w from opts.

w is exactly like a browserify bundle except that caches file contents and emits an 'update' event when a file changes. You should call w.bundle() after the 'update' event fires to generate a new bundle. Calling w.bundle() extra times past the first time will be much faster due to caching.

install

With npm do:

$ npm install -g watchify

to get the watchify command and:

$ npm install watchify

to get just the library.

license

MIT