/tsc-watch

The TypeScript compiler with --watch and a new onSuccess argument

Primary LanguageJavaScriptMIT LicenseMIT

Build Status

The nodemon for TypeScript

tsc-watch starts a TypeScript compiler with --watch parameter, with the ability to react to compilation status. tsc-watch was created to allow an easy dev process with TypeScript. Commonly used to restart a node server, similar to nodemon but for TypeScript.

Argument Description
--onSuccess COMMAND Executes COMMAND on every successful compilation.
--onFirstSuccess COMMAND Executes COMMAND on the first successful compilation.
--onFailure COMMAND Executes COMMAND on every failed compilation.
--onCompilationComplete COMMAND Executes COMMAND on every successful or failed compilation.
--noColors By default tsc-watch adds colors the output with green
on success, and in red on failiure.
Add this argument to prevent that.
--noClear In watch mode the tsc compiler clears the screen before reporting
Add this argument to prevent that.
--compiler PATH The PATH will be used instead of typescript compiler.
Default is typescript/bin/tsc

Notes:

  • That all the above COMMANDs will be killed on process exit. (Using SIGTERM)

  • A COMMAND is a single command and not multi command like script1.sh && script2.sh

  • Any child process (COMMAND) will be terminated before creating a new one.

Install

npm install tsc-watch --save-dev

Usage

From Command-Line

## Watching a project (with tsconfig.json)
tsc-watch --onSuccess "node ./dist/server.js"

## Beep on failure
tsc-watch --onFailure "echo Beep! Compilation Failed"

## Wathcing a single file
tsc-watch server.ts --outDir ./dist --onSuccess "node ./dist/server.js"

## Custom compiler
tsc-watch --onSuccess "node ./dist/server.js" --compiler my-typescript/bin/tsc

From Code

The client is implemented as an instance of Node.JS's EventEmitter, with the following events:

  • first_success - Emitted upon first successful compilation.
  • subsequent_success - Emitted upon every subsequent successful compilation.
  • compile_errors - Emitted upon every failing compilation.

Once subscribed to the relevant events, start the client by running watch.start()

To kill the client, run watch.kill()

Example usage:

const TscWatchClient = require('tsc-watch/client');
const watch = new TscWatchClient();

watch.on('first_success', () => {
  console.log('First success!');
});

watch.on('success', () => {
  // Your code goes here...
});

watch.on('compile_errors', () => {
  // Your code goes here...
});

watch.start('--project', '.');

try {
  // do something...
} catch (e) {
  watch.kill(); // Fatal error, kill the compiler instance.
}

Notes:

  • The (onSuccess) COMMAND will not run if the compilation failed.
  • tsc-watch is using the currently installed TypeScript compiler.
  • tsc-watch is not changing the compiler, just adds the new arguments, compilation is the same, and all other arguments are the same.