[0c6b92a] | 1 | # Chokidar [![Weekly downloads](https://img.shields.io/npm/dw/chokidar.svg)](https://github.com/paulmillr/chokidar)
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| 2 |
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| 3 | > Minimal and efficient cross-platform file watching library
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| 4 |
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| 5 | ## Why?
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| 6 |
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| 7 | There are many reasons to prefer Chokidar to raw fs.watch / fs.watchFile in 2024:
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| 8 |
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| 9 | - Events are properly reported
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| 10 | - macOS events report filenames
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| 11 | - events are not reported twice
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| 12 | - changes are reported as add / change / unlink instead of useless `rename`
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| 13 | - Atomic writes are supported, using `atomic` option
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| 14 | - Some file editors use them
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| 15 | - Chunked writes are supported, using `awaitWriteFinish` option
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| 16 | - Large files are commonly written in chunks
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| 17 | - File / dir filtering is supported
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| 18 | - Symbolic links are supported
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| 19 | - Recursive watching is always supported, instead of partial when using raw events
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| 20 | - Includes a way to limit recursion depth
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| 21 |
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| 22 | Chokidar relies on the Node.js core `fs` module, but when using
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| 23 | `fs.watch` and `fs.watchFile` for watching, it normalizes the events it
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| 24 | receives, often checking for truth by getting file stats and/or dir contents.
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| 25 | The `fs.watch`-based implementation is the default, which
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| 26 | avoids polling and keeps CPU usage down. Be advised that chokidar will initiate
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| 27 | watchers recursively for everything within scope of the paths that have been
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| 28 | specified, so be judicious about not wasting system resources by watching much
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| 29 | more than needed. For some cases, `fs.watchFile`, which utilizes polling and uses more resources, is used.
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| 30 |
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| 31 | Made for [Brunch](https://brunch.io/) in 2012,
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| 32 | it is now used in [~30 million repositories](https://www.npmjs.com/browse/depended/chokidar) and
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| 33 | has proven itself in production environments.
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| 34 |
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| 35 | **Sep 2024 update:** v4 is out! It decreases dependency count from 13 to 1, removes
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| 36 | support for globs, adds support for ESM / Common.js modules, and bumps minimum node.js version from v8 to v14.
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| 37 | Check out [upgrading](#upgrading).
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| 38 |
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| 39 | ## Getting started
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| 40 |
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| 41 | Install with npm:
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| 42 |
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| 43 | ```sh
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| 44 | npm install chokidar
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| 45 | ```
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| 46 |
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| 47 | Use it in your code:
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| 48 |
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| 49 | ```javascript
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| 50 | import chokidar from 'chokidar';
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| 51 |
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| 52 | // One-liner for current directory
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| 53 | chokidar.watch('.').on('all', (event, path) => {
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| 54 | console.log(event, path);
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| 55 | });
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| 56 |
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| 57 |
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| 58 | // Extended options
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| 59 | // ----------------
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| 60 |
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| 61 | // Initialize watcher.
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| 62 | const watcher = chokidar.watch('file, dir, or array', {
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| 63 | ignored: (path, stats) => stats?.isFile() && !path.endsWith('.js'), // only watch js files
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| 64 | persistent: true
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| 65 | });
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| 66 |
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| 67 | // Something to use when events are received.
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| 68 | const log = console.log.bind(console);
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| 69 | // Add event listeners.
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| 70 | watcher
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| 71 | .on('add', path => log(`File ${path} has been added`))
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| 72 | .on('change', path => log(`File ${path} has been changed`))
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| 73 | .on('unlink', path => log(`File ${path} has been removed`));
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| 74 |
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| 75 | // More possible events.
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| 76 | watcher
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| 77 | .on('addDir', path => log(`Directory ${path} has been added`))
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| 78 | .on('unlinkDir', path => log(`Directory ${path} has been removed`))
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| 79 | .on('error', error => log(`Watcher error: ${error}`))
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| 80 | .on('ready', () => log('Initial scan complete. Ready for changes'))
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| 81 | .on('raw', (event, path, details) => { // internal
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| 82 | log('Raw event info:', event, path, details);
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| 83 | });
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| 84 |
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| 85 | // 'add', 'addDir' and 'change' events also receive stat() results as second
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| 86 | // argument when available: https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_class_fs_stats
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| 87 | watcher.on('change', (path, stats) => {
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| 88 | if (stats) console.log(`File ${path} changed size to ${stats.size}`);
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| 89 | });
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| 90 |
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| 91 | // Watch new files.
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| 92 | watcher.add('new-file');
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| 93 | watcher.add(['new-file-2', 'new-file-3']);
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| 94 |
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| 95 | // Get list of actual paths being watched on the filesystem
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| 96 | let watchedPaths = watcher.getWatched();
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| 97 |
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| 98 | // Un-watch some files.
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| 99 | await watcher.unwatch('new-file');
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| 100 |
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| 101 | // Stop watching. The method is async!
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| 102 | await watcher.close().then(() => console.log('closed'));
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| 103 |
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| 104 | // Full list of options. See below for descriptions.
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| 105 | // Do not use this example!
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| 106 | chokidar.watch('file', {
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| 107 | persistent: true,
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| 108 |
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| 109 | // ignore .txt files
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| 110 | ignored: (file) => file.endsWith('.txt'),
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| 111 | // watch only .txt files
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| 112 | // ignored: (file, _stats) => _stats?.isFile() && !file.endsWith('.txt'),
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| 113 |
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| 114 | awaitWriteFinish: true, // emit single event when chunked writes are completed
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| 115 | atomic: true // emit proper events when "atomic writes" (mv _tmp file) are used
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| 116 |
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| 117 | // The options also allow specifying custom intervals in ms
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| 118 | // awaitWriteFinish: {
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| 119 | // stabilityThreshold: 2000,
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| 120 | // pollInterval: 100
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| 121 | // },
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| 122 | // atomic: 100,
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| 123 | interval: 100,
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| 124 | binaryInterval: 300,
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| 125 |
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| 126 | cwd: '.',
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| 127 | depth: 99,
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| 128 |
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| 129 | followSymlinks: true,
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| 130 | ignoreInitial: false,
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| 131 | ignorePermissionErrors: false,
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| 132 | usePolling: false,
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| 133 | alwaysStat: false,
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| 134 | });
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| 135 |
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| 136 | ```
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| 137 |
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| 138 | `chokidar.watch(paths, [options])`
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| 139 |
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| 140 | * `paths` (string or array of strings). Paths to files, dirs to be watched
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| 141 | recursively.
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| 142 | * `options` (object) Options object as defined below:
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| 143 |
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| 144 | #### Persistence
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| 145 |
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| 146 | * `persistent` (default: `true`). Indicates whether the process
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| 147 | should continue to run as long as files are being watched.
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| 148 |
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| 149 | #### Path filtering
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| 150 |
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| 151 | * `ignored` function, regex, or path. Defines files/paths to be ignored.
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| 152 | The whole relative or absolute path is tested, not just filename. If a function with two arguments
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| 153 | is provided, it gets called twice per path - once with a single argument (the path), second
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| 154 | time with two arguments (the path and the
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| 155 | [`fs.Stats`](https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_class_fs_stats)
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| 156 | object of that path).
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| 157 | * `ignoreInitial` (default: `false`). If set to `false` then `add`/`addDir` events are also emitted for matching paths while
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| 158 | instantiating the watching as chokidar discovers these file paths (before the `ready` event).
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| 159 | * `followSymlinks` (default: `true`). When `false`, only the
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| 160 | symlinks themselves will be watched for changes instead of following
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| 161 | the link references and bubbling events through the link's path.
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| 162 | * `cwd` (no default). The base directory from which watch `paths` are to be
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| 163 | derived. Paths emitted with events will be relative to this.
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| 164 |
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| 165 | #### Performance
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| 166 |
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| 167 | * `usePolling` (default: `false`).
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| 168 | Whether to use fs.watchFile (backed by polling), or fs.watch. If polling
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| 169 | leads to high CPU utilization, consider setting this to `false`. It is
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| 170 | typically necessary to **set this to `true` to successfully watch files over
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| 171 | a network**, and it may be necessary to successfully watch files in other
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| 172 | non-standard situations. Setting to `true` explicitly on MacOS overrides the
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| 173 | `useFsEvents` default. You may also set the CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING env variable
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| 174 | to true (1) or false (0) in order to override this option.
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| 175 | * _Polling-specific settings_ (effective when `usePolling: true`)
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| 176 | * `interval` (default: `100`). Interval of file system polling, in milliseconds. You may also
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| 177 | set the CHOKIDAR_INTERVAL env variable to override this option.
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| 178 | * `binaryInterval` (default: `300`). Interval of file system
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| 179 | polling for binary files.
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| 180 | ([see list of binary extensions](https://github.com/sindresorhus/binary-extensions/blob/master/binary-extensions.json))
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| 181 | * `alwaysStat` (default: `false`). If relying upon the
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| 182 | [`fs.Stats`](https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_class_fs_stats)
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| 183 | object that may get passed with `add`, `addDir`, and `change` events, set
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| 184 | this to `true` to ensure it is provided even in cases where it wasn't
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| 185 | already available from the underlying watch events.
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| 186 | * `depth` (default: `undefined`). If set, limits how many levels of
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| 187 | subdirectories will be traversed.
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| 188 | * `awaitWriteFinish` (default: `false`).
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| 189 | By default, the `add` event will fire when a file first appears on disk, before
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| 190 | the entire file has been written. Furthermore, in some cases some `change`
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| 191 | events will be emitted while the file is being written. In some cases,
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| 192 | especially when watching for large files there will be a need to wait for the
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| 193 | write operation to finish before responding to a file creation or modification.
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| 194 | Setting `awaitWriteFinish` to `true` (or a truthy value) will poll file size,
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| 195 | holding its `add` and `change` events until the size does not change for a
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| 196 | configurable amount of time. The appropriate duration setting is heavily
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| 197 | dependent on the OS and hardware. For accurate detection this parameter should
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| 198 | be relatively high, making file watching much less responsive.
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| 199 | Use with caution.
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| 200 | * *`options.awaitWriteFinish` can be set to an object in order to adjust
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| 201 | timing params:*
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| 202 | * `awaitWriteFinish.stabilityThreshold` (default: 2000). Amount of time in
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| 203 | milliseconds for a file size to remain constant before emitting its event.
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| 204 | * `awaitWriteFinish.pollInterval` (default: 100). File size polling interval, in milliseconds.
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| 205 |
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| 206 | #### Errors
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| 207 |
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| 208 | * `ignorePermissionErrors` (default: `false`). Indicates whether to watch files
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| 209 | that don't have read permissions if possible. If watching fails due to `EPERM`
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| 210 | or `EACCES` with this set to `true`, the errors will be suppressed silently.
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| 211 | * `atomic` (default: `true` if `useFsEvents` and `usePolling` are `false`).
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| 212 | Automatically filters out artifacts that occur when using editors that use
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| 213 | "atomic writes" instead of writing directly to the source file. If a file is
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| 214 | re-added within 100 ms of being deleted, Chokidar emits a `change` event
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| 215 | rather than `unlink` then `add`. If the default of 100 ms does not work well
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| 216 | for you, you can override it by setting `atomic` to a custom value, in
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| 217 | milliseconds.
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| 218 |
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| 219 | ### Methods & Events
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| 220 |
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| 221 | `chokidar.watch()` produces an instance of `FSWatcher`. Methods of `FSWatcher`:
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| 222 |
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| 223 | * `.add(path / paths)`: Add files, directories for tracking.
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| 224 | Takes an array of strings or just one string.
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| 225 | * `.on(event, callback)`: Listen for an FS event.
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| 226 | Available events: `add`, `addDir`, `change`, `unlink`, `unlinkDir`, `ready`,
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| 227 | `raw`, `error`.
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| 228 | Additionally `all` is available which gets emitted with the underlying event
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| 229 | name and path for every event other than `ready`, `raw`, and `error`. `raw` is internal, use it carefully.
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| 230 | * `.unwatch(path / paths)`: Stop watching files or directories.
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| 231 | Takes an array of strings or just one string.
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| 232 | * `.close()`: **async** Removes all listeners from watched files. Asynchronous, returns Promise. Use with `await` to ensure bugs don't happen.
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| 233 | * `.getWatched()`: Returns an object representing all the paths on the file
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| 234 | system being watched by this `FSWatcher` instance. The object's keys are all the
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| 235 | directories (using absolute paths unless the `cwd` option was used), and the
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| 236 | values are arrays of the names of the items contained in each directory.
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| 237 |
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| 238 | ## CLI
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| 239 |
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| 240 | If you need a CLI interface for your file watching, check out
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| 241 | third party [chokidar-cli](https://github.com/open-cli-tools/chokidar-cli), allowing you to
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| 242 | execute a command on each change, or get a stdio stream of change events.
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| 243 |
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| 244 | ## Troubleshooting
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| 245 |
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| 246 | * On Linux, sometimes there's `ENOSP` error:
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| 247 | * `bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device bash: no job control in this shell`
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| 248 | `Error: watch /home/ ENOSPC`
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| 249 | * This means Chokidar ran out of file handles and you'll need to increase their count by executing the following command in Terminal:
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| 250 | `echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p`
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| 251 | * If using 3.x, upgrade to latest chokidar to prevent fsevents-related issues:
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| 252 | * `npm WARN optional dep failed, continuing fsevents@n.n.n`
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| 253 | * `TypeError: fsevents is not a constructor`
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| 254 |
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| 255 | ## Changelog
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| 256 |
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| 257 | - **v4 (Sep 2024):** remove glob support and bundled fsevents. Decrease dependency count from 13 to 1. Rewrite in typescript. Bumps minimum node.js requirement to v14+
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| 258 | - **v3 (Apr 2019):** massive CPU & RAM consumption improvements; reduces deps / package size by a factor of 17x and bumps Node.js requirement to v8.16+.
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| 259 | - **v2 (Dec 2017):** globs are now posix-style-only. Tons of bugfixes.
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| 260 | - **v1 (Apr 2015):** glob support, symlink support, tons of bugfixes. Node 0.8+ is supported
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| 261 | - **v0.1 (Apr 2012):** Initial release, extracted from [Brunch](https://github.com/brunch/brunch/blob/9847a065aea300da99bd0753f90354cde9de1261/src/helpers.coffee#L66)
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| 262 |
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| 263 | ### Upgrading
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| 264 |
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| 265 | If you've used globs before and want do replicate the functionality with v4:
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| 266 |
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| 267 | ```js
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| 268 | // v3
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| 269 | chok.watch('**/*.js');
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| 270 | chok.watch("./directory/**/*");
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| 271 |
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| 272 | // v4
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| 273 | chok.watch('.', {
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| 274 | ignored: (path, stats) => stats?.isFile() && !path.endsWith('.js'), // only watch js files
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| 275 | });
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| 276 | chok.watch('./directory');
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| 277 |
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| 278 | // other way
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| 279 | import { glob } from 'node:fs/promises';
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| 280 | const watcher = watch(await glob('**/*.js'));
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| 281 |
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| 282 | // unwatching
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| 283 | // v3
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| 284 | chok.unwatch('**/*.js');
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| 285 | // v4
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| 286 | chok.unwatch(await glob('**/*.js'));
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| 287 | ```
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| 288 |
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| 289 | ## Also
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| 290 |
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| 291 | Why was chokidar named this way? What's the meaning behind it?
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| 292 |
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| 293 | >Chowkidar is a transliteration of a Hindi word meaning 'watchman, gatekeeper', चौकीदार. This ultimately comes from Sanskrit _ चतुष्क_ (crossway, quadrangle, consisting-of-four). This word is also used in other languages like Urdu as (چوکیدار) which is widely used in Pakistan and India.
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| 294 |
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| 295 | ## License
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| 296 |
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| 297 | MIT (c) Paul Miller (<https://paulmillr.com>), see [LICENSE](LICENSE) file.
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