How to watch a file for changes effectively using Node.js?

Question

I am looking for a stable way to watch for changes on a file using Node.js. The easiest option fs.watch is unstable according to the docs. For me it works fine but it is always fired twice per a single change. The file is not really changed twice (on my OSX) and using EventMachine.watch_file the desired event is triggered exactly once per change.

However in gulp any watch-task also works fine: the event is triggered once per change.

So I have two questions: which library/function is used in gulp to watch file and how to use it instead of fs.watch? I am quite new to Node.js so surfing the sources of gulp didn't help me.

gulp uses https://github.com/shama/gaze currently. – Kevin B Jul 21 '15 at 17:19 — Kevin B, Jul 21 '15 at 17:19
(which doesn't use fs.watch) – Kevin B Jul 21 '15 at 17:25 — Kevin B, Jul 21 '15 at 17:25

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 21 '15 at 18:05

0

As Kevin_B mentioned, the answer is https://github.com/shama/gaze

answered Jul 21 '15 at 18:05

overdawn

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How to watch a file for changes effectively using Node.js?

1 Answers1