nodemon ignore directory

Question

In a Universal Javascript app, I would like nodemon to ignore client directory changes.

I have tried the following:

"devStart": "nodemon server/server.js --ignore 'client/*' --exec babel-node",
"devStart": "nodemon server/server.js --ignore 'client/' --exec babel-node",
"devStart": "nodemon server/server.js --ignore client/ --exec babel-node",
"devStart": "nodemon --ignore 'client/*' server/server.js --exec babel-node",
"devStart": "nodemon --ignore 'client/' server/server.js --exec babel-node",
"devStart": "nodemon --ignore client/ server/server.js --exec babel-node",

None of these work.

File structure:

+-server
+-client
+-package.json <------- where nodemon script is

However this is not working. Pretty sure it is a pattern issue.

Any ideas?

I'd suggest store your nodemon configurations in `nodemon.json` file. would make it cleaner. — Aᴍɪʀ, Jan 28 '17 at 18:14
@Aᴍɪʀ Thanks for the tip. Any tips for the actual question? — softcode, Jan 28 '17 at 18:15
pretty sure its just the path to client thats off - should be `./client/*`, or `client/*` — hackerrdave, Jan 28 '17 at 18:18
can you try without the `'` marks around and also use `.` instead of `..`: `'./client/*'` and also without `*`? — Aᴍɪʀ, Jan 28 '17 at 18:18
@Aᴍɪʀ edited `package.json` is actually in the same directory as `server` and `client` — softcode, Jan 28 '17 at 18:25
just to be clear, you are running it through `npm run devStart`, right? does it work if you write the exact same thing directly in command line? — Aᴍɪʀ, Jan 28 '17 at 18:31
The command `nodemon server/server.js --ignore client/ --exec babel-node` should work. I just tested it out. Make sure that you're ending `nodemon` after saving your `package.json` file. — Josh Crozier, Jan 28 '17 at 19:00

score 99 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 07 '21 at 21:54

99

You need to replace .. with ., or just reference client/ directly, also you will need to remove the asterisk:

"devStart": "nodemon --ignore ./client/ --exec babel-node src/server.js"

Or

"devStart": "nodemon --ignore client/ --exec babel-node src/server.js"

According to nodemon docs this is how to ignore a directory via command line:

nodemon --ignore lib/ --ignore tests/

Also note that nodemon will only restart the node process, if you change the npm script you will need to kill the process and re-run npm run devStart

edited Jun 07 '21 at 21:54

turbopasi

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answered Jan 28 '17 at 18:20

hackerrdave

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Edited my `package.json` is actually in the same directory as `client` and `src` – softcode Jan 28 '17 at 18:25
have updated the answer to remove the asterisk - nodemon docs say to follow this pattern: `nodemon --ignore lib/ --ignore tests/` – hackerrdave Jan 28 '17 at 18:34
I tried that also. Could it be the order of things? Should the directory nodemon is expected to run come after the ignore? – softcode Jan 28 '17 at 18:37
1

Ok got it. I was expecting the server reload to actually reload the devStart script. Turns out I had to kill the process and run `npm run devStart` again. If you can update your answer to reflect this I will accept it. @hackerrdave – softcode Jan 28 '17 at 18:56
"you will need to remove the asterisk" worked for me! Thank you. – natterstefan Aug 17 '19 at 09:08
2

I had to remove the quotes around `client/` – Cullub Jun 02 '20 at 23:00
1

REMOVE THE QUOTES works for me: `nodemon --ignore client src/server.js` – Tran Anh Minh Mar 01 '21 at 14:34

score 57 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 05 '19 at 23:22

In the very likely circumstance that you're using nodemon in a configuration file, you can create a separate configuration entry for those files to be ignored. Bonus, a cleaner looking nodemon call, especially if files to ignore grows large.

For example, this package.json instructs nodemon to ignore directory test:

{
  "scripts": {
    "test": "jest",
    "start": "nodemon server.js"
  },
  "nodemonConfig": {
      "ignore": ["test/*"]
  }
}

Find the complete instructions for nodemon configuration file settings here.

As in the other answer, be sure to restart nodemon for the configuration changes to take effect.

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 14 '21 at 22:59

7

Create nodemon.json in your project root that looks something like this:

{
  "ignore": ["db.json"]
}

This is an alternative to using package.json as seen in Andrew Philips answer

See docs

answered Apr 14 '21 at 22:59

danday74

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score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 19 '21 at 10:07

4

just so you all know, i was using this pattern to exclude directories :

node_modules/**

but it led to using a LOT of watchers: nearly 500000 on one of my projects and now i use

node_modules/

which uses only 134 watchers.

Always monitor your work

answered Oct 19 '21 at 10:07

Raphael PICCOLO

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Any guidance on how you monitor these watchers? – dKen May 05 '23 at 06:40
For those who stumble across this, you can add `"verbose": true,` to your `nodemon.json` file and it'll show you the count of files being watched. – dKen May 05 '23 at 06:51
@dKen i used this to count inotify handles : https://github.com/fatso83/dotfiles/blob/master/utils/scripts/inotify-consumers – Raphael PICCOLO Jun 07 '23 at 20:22

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 19 '20 at 16:19

0

Also you can use something like this to run nodemon only in a specific folder. This way you don't have to add multiple --ignore parameters.

{
  "scripts": {
    "devStart": "cd ./server/ && nodemon ./server.js"
  }
}

answered Dec 19 '20 at 16:19

ozgrozer

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nodemon ignore directory

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