master/README.rdoc

= Guard

Guard is a command line tool that easily handle events on files modifications.

== Features

- {FSEvent}[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSEvents] support on Mac OS X 10.5+ (without RubyCocoa!, {rb-fsevent gem, >= 0.3.5}[https://rubygems.org/gems/rb-fsevent] required)
- {Inotify}[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inotify] support on Linux ({rb-inotify gem, >= 0.5.1}[https://rubygems.org/gems/rb-inotify] required)
- Polling for others (help us to support more systems)
- Super fast change detection (when polling not used)
- Automatic files modifications detection (even new files are detected)
- Growl notification ({growlnotify}[http://growl.info/documentation/growlnotify.php] & {growl gem}[https://rubygems.org/gems/growl] required)
- Libnotify notification ({libnotify gem}[https://rubygems.org/gems/libnotify] required)
- Tested on Ruby 1.8.6, 1.8.7 & 1.9.2

== Install

Install the gem:

    gem install guard

Add it to your Gemfile (inside test group):

    gem 'guard'

Generate an empty Guardfile with:

    guard init

Add the guards you need (see available guards below)

=== On Mac OS X

Install rb-fsevent for {FSEvent}[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSEvents] support:

    gem install rb-fsevent

Install growl for Growl notification support:

    gem install growl

And add it to you Gemfile:

    gem 'growl'

=== On Linux

Install rb-inotify for {inotify}[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inotify] support:

    gem install rb-inotify

Install libnotify for libonity notification support:

    gem install libnotify

And add it to you Gemfile:

    gem 'libnotify'

== Usage

Just launch Guard inside your Ruby / Rails project with:

    guard

or if you use Bundler, to run the Guard executable specific to your bundle:

    bundle exec guard

== Command line options

Shell can be cleared after each change with:

    guard --clear
    guard -c # shortcut

The guards to start can be specified by group (see Guardfile DSL below) specifying the `--group` (or `-g`) option:

    guard --group group_name another_group_name
    guard -g group_name another_group_name # shortcut

Options list is available with:

    guard help [TASK]

== Signal handlers

Signal handlers are used to interact with Guard:

- Ctrl-C - Quit Guard (call each guard's run_all method, in the same order they are declared in the Guarfile)
- Ctrl-\ - Call each guard's run_all method, in the same order they are declared in the Guarfile
- Ctrl-Z - Call each guard's reload method, in the same order they are declared in the Guarfile

== Available Guards

- {guard-bundler}[https://github.com/guard/guard-bundler] by {Yann Lugrin}[https://github.com/yannlugrin]
- {guard-coffeescript}[https://github.com/guard/guard-coffeescript] by {Michael Kessler}[https://github.com/netzpirat]
- {guard-compass}[https://github.com/guard/guard-compass] by {Olivier Amblet}[https://github.com/oliamb]
- {guard-cucumber}[https://github.com/guard/guard-cucumber] by {Michael Kessler}[https://github.com/netzpirat]
- {guard-ego}[https://github.com/guard/guard-ego] by {Fabio Kuhn}[https://github.com/mordaroso]
- {guard-jammit}[https://github.com/guard/guard-jammit] by {Pelle Braendgaard}[https://github.com/pelle]
- {guard-krl}[https://github.com/guard/guard-krl] by {Michael Farmer}[https://github.com/mikefarmer]
- {guard-less}[https://github.com/guard/guard-less] by {Brendan Erwin}[https://github.com/brendanjerwin]
- {guard-livereload}[https://github.com/guard/guard-livereload] by {Thibaud Guillaume-Gentil}[https://github.com/thibaudgg]
- {guard-minitest}[https://github.com/guard/guard-minitest] by {Yann Lugrin}[https://github.com/yannlugrin]
- {guard-nanoc}[https://github.com/guard/guard-nanoc] by {Yann Lugrin}[https://github.com/yannlugrin]
- {guard-passenger}[https://github.com/guard/guard-passenger] by {Fabio Kuhn}[https://github.com/mordaroso]
- {guard-pusher}[https://github.com/guard/guard-pusher] by {Klaus Hartl}[https://github.com/carhartl]
- {guard-rspec}[https://github.com/guard/guard-rspec] by {Thibaud Guillaume-Gentil}[https://github.com/thibaudgg]
- {guard-sass}[https://github.com/guard/guard-sass] by {Joshua Hawxwell}[https://github.com/hawx]
- {guard-shell}[https://github.com/guard/guard-shell] by {Joshua Hawxwell}[https://github.com/hawx]
- {guard-soca}[https://github.com/guard/guard-soca] by {Luke Amdor}[https://github.com/rubbish]
- {guard-spork}[https://github.com/guard/guard-spork] by {Thibaud Guillaume-Gentil}[https://github.com/thibaudgg]
- {guard-stendhal}[https://github.com/guard/guard-stendhal] by {Josep Mª Bach}[https://github.com/txus]
- {guard-test}[https://github.com/guard/guard-test] by {Rémy Coutable}[https://github.com/rymai]

=== Add a guard to your Guardfile

Add it to your Gemfile (inside test group):

    gem '<guard-name>'

Add guard definition to your Guardfile by running this command:

    guard init <guard-name>

You are good to go!

== Guardfile DSL

The Guardfile DSL consists of just three simple main methods: `guard`, `watch` & `group`.

Required:
- The `guard` method allows you to add a guard with an optional options hash.
- The `watch` method allows you to define which files are supervised per this guard. A optional block can be added to overwrite path sent to run_on_change guard method or launch simple command.

Optional:
- The `group` method allows you to group several guards. Groups to run can be specified with the Guard DSL option `--group` (or `-g`). This comes in handy especially when you have a huge Guardfile and want to focus your development.

Example:

    group 'backend' do
      guard 'bundler' do
        watch('Gemfile')
      end

      guard 'rspec' do
        # Regexp watch patterns are matched with Regexp#match
        watch(%r{^spec/(.+)_spec\.rb})
        watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb})         { |m| "spec/lib/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
        watch(%r{^spec/models/.+\.rb})   { ["spec/models", "spec/acceptance"] }
        watch(%r{^spec/.+\.rb})          { `say hello` }

        # String watch patterns are matched with simple '=='
        watch('spec/spec_helper.rb') { "spec" }
      end
    end

    group 'frontend' do
      guard 'coffeescript', :output => 'public/javascripts/compiled' do
        watch(%r{app/coffeescripts/.+\.coffee})
      end

      guard 'livereload' do
        watch(%r{app/.+\.(erb|haml)})
      end
    end

== Create a guard

Create a new guard is very easy, just create a new gem with this basic structure:

    lib/
      guard/
        guard-name/
          templates/
            Guardfile (needed for guard init <guard-name>)
        guard-name.rb

lib/guard/guard-name.rb inherit from guard/guard and should overwrite at least one of the five guard methods. Example:

    require 'guard'
    require 'guard/guard'

    module Guard
      class GuardName < Guard

        def initialize(watchers = [], options = {})
          super
          # init stuff here, thx!
        end

        # ================
        # = Guard method =
        # ================

        # If one of those methods raise an exception, the Guard instance
        # will be removed from the active guard.

        # Call once when guard starts
        # Please override initialize method to init stuff
        def start
          true
        end

        # Call with Ctrl-C signal (when Guard quit)
        def stop
          true
        end

        # Call with Ctrl-Z signal
        # This method should be mainly used for "reload" (really!) actions like reloading passenger/spork/bundler/...
        def reload
          true
        end

        # Call with Ctrl-/ signal
        # This method should be principally used for long action like running all specs/tests/...
        def run_all
          true
        end

        # Call on file(s) modifications
        def run_on_change(paths)
          true
        end

      end
    end

Looks at available guards code for more concrete example.

== Development

- Source hosted at {GitHub}[https://github.com/guard/guard]
- Report issues/Questions/Feature requests on {GitHub Issues}[https://github.com/guard/guard/issues]

Pull requests are very welcome! Make sure your patches are well tested. Please create a topic branch for every separate change
you make.

== Authors

{Thibaud Guillaume-Gentil}[https://github.com/thibaudgg]