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 on the other operating systems (help us to support more OS).
- Automatic & Super fast (when polling is not used) files modifications detection (even new files are detected).
- Growl notifications ({growlnotify}[http://growl.info/documentation/growlnotify.php] & {growl gem}[https://rubygems.org/gems/growl] required).
- Libnotify notifications ({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 the <tt>test</tt> group):

    gem 'guard'

Generate an empty Guardfile with:

    $ guard init

Add the guards you need to your Guardfile (see the existing guards below).

=== On Mac OS X

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

    $ gem install rb-fsevent

Install the Growl gem if you want notification support:

    $ gem install growl

And add it to you Gemfile:

    gem 'growl'

=== On Linux

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

    $ gem install rb-inotify

Install the Libnotify gem if you want notification support:

    $ gem install libnotify

And add it to you Gemfile:

    gem 'libnotify'

== Usage

Just launch Guard inside your Ruby / Rails project with:

    $ guard [start]

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

Notifications (growl/libnotify) can be disabled with:

    $ guard --notify false
    $ guard -n false # shortcut

The guards to start can be specified by group (see the Guardfile DSL below) specifying the <tt>--group</tt> (or <tt>-g</tt>) 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:

- <tt>Ctrl-C</tt> - Calls each guard's <tt>stop</tt> method, in the same order they are declared in the Guardfile, and then quits Guard itself.
- <tt>Ctrl-\\</tt>  - Calls each guard's <tt>run_all</tt> method, in the same order they are declared in the Guardfile.
- <tt>Ctrl-Z</tt> - Calls each guard's <tt>reload</tt> method, in the same order they are declared in the Guardfile.

== Available Guards

{Available Guards list}[https://github.com/guard/guard/wiki/List-of-available-Guards] (on the wiki now)

=== Add a guard to your Guardfile

Add it to your Gemfile (inside the <tt>test</tt> group):

    gem '<guard-name>'

Insert default guard's 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 methods: <tt>guard</tt>, <tt>watch</tt> & <tt>group</tt>.

Required:
- The <tt>guard</tt> method allows you to add a guard with an optional hash of options.
- The <tt>watch</tt> method allows you to define which files are supervised by this guard. An optional block can be added to overwrite the paths sent to the <tt>run_on_change</tt> guard method or to launch any arbitrary command.

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

Example:

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

      guard 'rspec', :cli => '--color --format doc' 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 new guard

Creating a new guard is very easy, just create a new gem (<tt>bundle gem</tt> if you use Bundler) with this basic structure:

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

<tt>Guard::GuardName</tt> (in <tt>lib/guard/guard-name.rb</tt>) must inherit from <tt>Guard::Guard</tt> and should overwrite at least one of the five basic <tt>Guard::Guard</tt> instance methods. Example:

    require 'guard'
    require 'guard/guard'

    module Guard
      class GuardName < Guard

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

        # =================
        # = Guard methods =
        # =================

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

        # Called once when Guard starts
        # Please override initialize method to init stuff
        def start
          true
        end

        # Called on Ctrl-C signal (when Guard quits)
        def stop
          true
        end

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

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

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

      end
    end

Please take a look at the existing guards' source code (see the list above) 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]