### :warning: Guard is [looking for new maintainers](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/guard-dev/2Td0QTvTIsE). Please [contact me](mailto:thibaud@thibaud.gg) if you're interested.
Guard
=====
[](http://badge.fury.io/rb/guard) [](https://travis-ci.org/guard/guard) [](https://gemnasium.com/guard/guard) [](https://codeclimate.com/github/guard/guard) [](https://coveralls.io/r/guard/guard) [](http://inch-ci.org/github/guard/guard)
Guard is a command line tool to easily handle events on file system modifications.
Guard has many very handy features, so read this document through at least once
to be aware of them - or you'll likely miss out on really cool ideas and tricks.
Also, by reading through you'll likely avoid common and time-consuming problems which Guard simply can't automatically solve.
If you have
any questions about the Guard usage or want to share some information with the Guard community, please go to one of
the following places:
* [Google+ community](https://plus.google.com/u/1/communities/110022199336250745477)
* [Google group](http://groups.google.com/group/guard-dev)
* [StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/guard)
* IRC channel `#guard` (irc.freenode.net) for chatting
Information on advanced topics like creating your own Guard plugin, programatic use of Guard, hooks and callbacks and
more can be found in the [Guard wiki](https://github.com/guard/guard/wiki).
Before you file an issue, make sure you have read the _[known issues](#issues)_ and _[file an issue](#file-an-issue)_ sections that contains some important information.
#### Features
* File system changes handled by our awesome [Listen](https://github.com/guard/listen) gem.
* Support for visual system notifications.
* Huge eco-system with [more than 220](https://rubygems.org/search?query=guard-) Guard plugins.
* Tested against Ruby 1.9.3, 2.0.0, 2.1.0, JRuby & Rubinius.
#### Screencast
Two nice screencasts are available to help you get started:
* [Guard](http://railscasts.com/episodes/264-guard) on RailsCast.
* [Guard is Your Best Friend](http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tools-and-tips/guard-is-your-best-friend) on Net Tuts+.
Installation
------------
The simplest way to install Guard is to use [Bundler](http://gembundler.com/).
Add Guard (and any other dependencies) to a `Gemfile` in your project’s root:
```ruby
group :development do
gem 'guard'
end
```
then install it by running Bundler:
```bash
$ bundle
```
Generate an empty `Guardfile` with:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard init
```
Run Guard through Bundler with:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard
```
If you are on Mac OS X and have problems with either Guard not reacting to file
changes or Pry behaving strange, then you should [add proper Readline support
to Ruby on Mac OS
X](https://github.com/guard/guard/wiki/Add-Readline-support-to-Ruby-on-Mac-OS-X).
#### Avoiding gem/dependency problems
**It's important that you always run Guard through Bundler to avoid errors.**
If you're getting sick of typing `bundle exec` all the time, try one of the following:
* (Recommended) Running `bundle binstub guard` will create `bin/guard` in your
project, which means running `bin/guard` (tab completion will save you a key
stroke or two) will have the exact same result as `bundle exec guard`
* Or, for RubyGems >= 2.2.0 (at least, though the more recent the better),
simply set the `RUBYGEMS_GEMDEPS` environment variable to `-` (for autodetecting
the Gemfile in the current or parent directories) or set it to the path of your Gemfile.
(To upgrade RubyGems from RVM, use the `rvm rubygems` command).
*NOTE: this Rubygems feature is still under development still lacks many features of bundler*
* Or, for RubyGems < 2.2.0 check out the [Rubygems Bundler](https://github.com/mpapis/rubygems-bundler).
#### Add Guard plugins
Guard is now ready to use and you should add some Guard plugins for your specific use. Start exploring the many Guard
plugins available by browsing the [Guard organization](https://github.com/guard) on GitHub or by searching for `guard-`
on [RubyGems](https://rubygems.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=guard-).
When you have found a Guard plugin of your interest, add it to your `Gemfile`:
```ruby
group :development do
gem ''
end
```
See the init section of the Guard usage below to see how to install the supplied plugin template that you can install and
to suit your needs.
Usage
-----
Guard is run from the command line. Please open your terminal and go to your project work directory.
### Help
You can always get help on the available tasks with the `help` task:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard help
```
Requesting more detailed help on a specific task is simple: just append the task name to the help task.
For example, to get help for the `start` task, simply run:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard help start
```
### Init
You can generate a Guardfile and have all installed plugins be automatically added into
it by running the `init` task without any option:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard init
```
You can also specify the name of an installed plugin to only get that plugin template
in the generated Guardfile:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard init
```
You can also specify the names of multiple plugins to only get those plugin templates
in the generated Guardfile:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard init
```
You can also define your own templates in `~/.guard/templates/` which can be appended in the same way to your existing
`Guardfile`:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard init
```
**Note**: If you already have a `Guardfile` in the current directory, the `init` task can be used
to append a supplied template from an installed plugin to your existing `Guardfile`.
#### `-b`/`--bare` option
You can generate an empty `Guardfile` by running the `init` task with the bare
option:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard init --bare
$ bundle exec guard init -b # shortcut
```
### Start
Just launch Guard inside your Ruby or Rails project with:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard
```
Guard will look for a `Guardfile` in your current directory. If it does not find one, it will look in your `$HOME`
directory for a `.Guardfile`.
#### `-c`/`--clear` option
The shell can be cleared after each change:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard --clear
$ bundle exec guard -c # shortcut
```
You may prefer to enable clearing in all projects by addin the `clearing`
statement (described below) in you `~/.guardrc` instead:
```ruby
clearing :on
```
#### `-n`/`--notify` option
System notifications can be disabled:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard --notify false
$ bundle exec guard -n f # shortcut
```
Notifications can also be disabled globally by setting a `GUARD_NOTIFY` environment variable to `false`.
#### `-g`/`--group` option
Scope Guard to certain plugin groups on start:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard --group group_name another_group_name
$ bundle exec guard -g group_name another_group_name # shortcut
```
See the Guardfile DSL below for creating groups.
#### `-P`/`--plugin` option
Scope Guard to certain plugins on start:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard --plugin plugin_name another_plugin_name
$ bundle exec guard -P plugin_name another_plugin_name # shortcut
```
#### `-d`/`--debug` option
Guard can display debug information (useful for plugin
developers) with:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard --debug
$ bundle exec guard -d # shortcut
```
#### `-w`/`--watchdir` option
Guard can watch any number of directories instead of only the current directory:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard --watchdir source/files # watch a subdirectory of your project
$ bundle exec guard -w source/files # shortcut
$ bundle exec guard -w sources/foo assets/foo ./config # multiple directories
$ bundle exec guard -w /fancy/project # path outside project - watch out! (see below)
```
*NOTE: this option is only meant for ignoring subdirectories in the CURRENT
directory - by selecting which ones to actually track.*
If your watched directories are outside the current one, or if `--watchdirs` isn't working
as you expect, be sure to read: [Correctly using watchdirs](https://github.com/guard/guard/wiki/Correctly-using-the---watchdir-option)
You may find it more convenient to use the `directories` statement (described
below) in your Guardfile
#### `-G`/`--guardfile` option
Guard can use a `Guardfile` not located in the current directory:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard --guardfile ~/.your_global_guardfile
$ bundle exec guard -G ~/.your_global_guardfile # shortcut
```
*TIP: set `BUNDLER_GEMFILE` environment variable to point to your Gemfile if it isn't in the current directory or the current Gemfile doesn't include all your favorite plugins*
#### `-i`/`--no-interactions` option
Turn off completely any Guard terminal interactions with:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard start -i
$ bundle exec guard start --no-interactions
```
#### `-B`/`--no-bundler-warning` option
Skip Bundler warning when a Gemfile exists in the project directory but Guard is not run with Bundler.
```bash
$ bundle exec guard start -B
$ bundle exec guard start --no-bundler-warning
```
#### `-l`/`--latency` option
Overwrite Listen's default latency, useful when your hard-drive / system is slow.
```bash
$ bundle exec guard start -l 1.5
$ bundle exec guard start --latency 1.5
```
*NOTE: this option is OS specific: while higher values may reduce CPU usage
(and lower values may increase responsiveness) when in polling mode , it has no
effect for optimized backends (except on Mac OS). If guard is not behaving as
you want, you'll likely instead want to tweak the `--wait-for-delay` option
below or use the `--watchdirs` option.*
#### `-p`/`--force-polling` option
Force Listen polling listener usage.
```bash
$ bundle exec guard start -p
$ bundle exec guard start --force-polling
```
#### `-y`/`--wait-for-delay` option
Overwrite Listen's default wait_for_delay, useful for kate-like editors through
ssh access or when guard is annoyingly running tasks multiple times.
```bash
$ bundle exec guard start -y 1
$ bundle exec guard start --wait-for-delay 1
```
#### `-o`/`--listen-on` option
Use Listen's network functionality to receive file change events from the network. This is most useful for virtual machines (e.g. Vagrant) which have problems firing native filesystem events on the guest OS.
##### Suggested use:
On the host OS, you need to listen to filesystem events and forward them to your VM using the `listen` script:
```bash
$ listen -f 127.0.0.1:4000
```
Remember to configure your VM to forward the appropriate ports, e.g. in Vagrantfile:
```ruby
config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 4000, host: 4000
```
Then, on your guest OS, listen to the network events but ensure you specify the *host* path
```bash
$ bundle exec guard -o '10.0.2.2:4000' -w '/projects/myproject'
```
### List
You can list the available plugins with the `list` task:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard list
+----------+--------------+
| Plugin | In Guardfile |
+----------+--------------+
| Compass | ✘ |
| Cucumber | ✘ |
| Jammit | ✘ |
| Ronn | ✔ |
| Rspec | ✔ |
| Spork | ✘ |
| Yard | ✘ |
+----------+--------------+
```
### Show
You can show the structure of the groups and their plugins with the `show` task:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard show
+---------+--------+-----------------+----------------------------+
| Group | Plugin | Option | Value |
+---------+--------+-----------------+----------------------------+
| Specs | Rspec | all_after_pass | true |
| | | all_on_start | true |
| | | cli | "--fail-fast --format doc" |
| | | focus_on_failed | false |
| | | keep_failed | true |
| | | run_all | {} |
| | | spec_paths | ["spec"] |
+---------+--------+-----------------+----------------------------+
| Docs | Ronn | | |
+---------+--------+-----------------+----------------------------+
```
This shows the internal structure of the evaluated `Guardfile` or `.Guardfile`, with the `.guard.rb` file. You can
read more about these files in the [shared configuration section](https://github.com/guard/guard/wiki/Shared-configurations).
### Notifiers
You can show the notifiers, their availablity and options with the `notifier` task:
```bash
$ bundle exec guard notifiers
+-------------------+-----------+------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Name | Available | Used | Option | Value |
+-------------------+-----------+------+------------------------+-------------------+
| gntp | ✔ | ✘ | sticky | false |
+-------------------+-----------+------+------------------------+-------------------+
| growl | ✘ | ✘ | sticky | false |
| | | | priority | 0 |
+-------------------+-----------+------+------------------------+-------------------+
```
This shows if a notifier is available on the current system, if it's being used and the
current options (which reflects your custom options merged into the default options).
Interactions
------------
Guard shows a [Pry](http://pryrepl.org/) console whenever it has nothing to do and comes with some Guard specific Pry
commands:
* `↩`, `a`, `all`: Run all plugins.
* `h`, `help`: Show help for all interactor commands.
* `c`, `change`: Trigger a file change.
* `n`, `notification`: Toggles the notifications.
* `p`, `pause`: Toggles the file listener.
* `r`, `reload`: Reload all plugins.
* `o`, `scope`: Scope Guard actions to plugins or groups.
* `s`, `show`: Show all Guard plugins.
* `e`, `exit`: Stop all plugins and quit Guard
The `all` and `reload` commands supports an optional scope, so you limit the Guard action to either a Guard plugin or
a Guard group like:
```bash
[1] guard(main)> all rspec
[2] guard(main)> all frontend
```
Remember, you can always use `help` on the Pry command line to see all available commands and `help ` for
more detailed information. `help guard` will show all Guard related commands available
Pry supports the Ruby built-in Readline, [rb-readline](https://github.com/luislavena/rb-readline) and
[Coolline](https://github.com/Mon-Ouie/coolline). Just install the readline implementation of your choice by adding it
to your `Gemfile`.
You can also disable the interactions completely by running Guard with the `--no-interactions` option.
### Customizations
Further Guard specific customizations can be made in `~/.guardrc` that will be evaluated prior the Pry session is
started (`~/.pryrc` is ignored). This allows you to make use of the Pry plugin architecture to provide custom commands
and extend Guard for your own needs and distribute as a gem. Please have a look at the
[Pry Wiki](https://github.com/pry/pry/wiki) for more information.
### Signals
You can also interact with Guard by sending POSIX signals to the Guard process (all but Windows and JRuby).
If the Pry interactor is used, then `Ctrl-C` is delegated to Pry to exit continuation and `Ctrl-D` to exit Guard.
Without interactor, `Ctrl-C` exits Guard and `Ctrl-D` is ignored.
#### Pause watching
```bash
$ kill -USR1
```
#### Continue watching
```bash
$ kill -USR2
```
Guardfile DSL
-------------
The Guardfile DSL is evaluated as plain Ruby, so you can use normal Ruby code in your `Guardfile`.
Guard itself provides the following DSL methods that can be used for configuration:
### guard
The `guard` method allows you to add a Guard plugin to your toolchain and configure it by passing the
options after the name of the plugin:
```ruby
guard :coffeescript, input: 'coffeescripts', output: 'javascripts'
```
You can define the same plugin more than once:
```ruby
guard :coffeescript, input: 'coffeescripts', output: 'javascripts'
guard :coffeescript, input: 'specs', output: 'specs'
```
### watch
The `watch` method allows you to define which files are watched by a Guard:
```ruby
guard :bundler do
watch('Gemfile')
end
```
String watch patterns are matched with [String#==](http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-1.9.3/String.html#method-i-3D-3D).
You can also pass a regular expression to the watch method:
```ruby
guard :jessie do
watch(%r{^spec/.+(_spec|Spec)\.(js|coffee)})
end
```
This instructs the jessie plugin to watch for file changes in the `spec` folder,
but only for file names that ends with `_spec` or `Spec` and have a file type of `js` or `coffee`.
You can easily test your watcher regular expressions with [Rubular](http://rubular.com/).
When you add a block to the watch expression, you can modify the file name that has been
detected before sending it to the plugin for processing:
```ruby
guard :rspec do
watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb$}) { |m| "spec/lib/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
end
```
In this example the regular expression capture group `(.+)` is used to transform a file change
in the `lib` folder to its test case in the `spec` folder. Regular expression watch patterns
are matched with [Regexp#match](http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-1.9.3/Regexp.html#method-i-match).
You can also launch any arbitrary command in the supplied block:
```ruby
guard :shell do
watch(/.*/) { `git status` }
end
```
*NOTE: Normally, most plugins expect the block to return a path or array of
paths - i.e. other plugins would think the `git status` output here is a
file path (which would cause an error), so this trick of returning the command
output only works for `guard-shell` plugin and other plugins that support
arbitrary results.*
You can also define `watch`es outside of a `guard` plugin. This is useful to
perform arbitrary Ruby logic (i.e. something project-specific).
```ruby
watch(/.*/) { |m| puts "#{m[0]} changed." }
```
### group
The `group` method allows you to group several plugins together. This comes in handy especially when you
have a huge `Guardfile` and want to focus your development on a certain part.
```ruby
group :specs do
guard :rspec do
watch(%r{^spec/.+_spec\.rb$})
end
end
group :docs do
guard :ronn do
watch(%r{^man/.+\.ronn?$})
end
end
```
Groups can be nested, reopened and can take multiple names to assign its plugin to multiple groups:
```ruby
group :desktop do
guard 'livereload' do
watch(%r{desktop/.+\.html})
end
group :mobile do
guard 'livereload' do
watch(%r{mobile/.+\.html})
end
end
end
group :mobile, :desktop do
guard 'livereload' do
watch(%r{both/.+\.html})
end
end
```
Groups to be run can be specified with the Guard DSL option `--group` (or `-g`):
```bash
$ bundle exec guard -g specs
```
Plugins that don't belong to a group are part of the `default` group.
Another neat use of groups is to group dependent plugins and stop processing if one fails. In order
to make this work, the group needs to have the `halt_on_fail` option enabled and the Guard plugin
needs to throw `:task_has_failed` to indicate that the action was not successful.
```ruby
group :specs, halt_on_fail: true do
guard :rspec do
watch(/.../)
end
guard :cucumber do
watch(/.../)
end
end
```
### scope
The `scope` method allows you to define the default plugin or group scope for Guard, if not
specified as command line option. Thus command line group and plugin scope takes precedence over
the DSL scope configuration.
You can define either a single plugin or group:
```ruby
scope plugin: :rspec
scope group: :docs
```
or specify multiple plugins or groups.
```ruby
scope plugins: [:test, :jasmine]
scope groups: [:docs, :frontend]
```
If you define both the plugin and group scope, the plugin scope has precedence. If you use both the
plural and the singular option, the plural has precedence.
**Please be sure to call the `scope` method after you've declared your Guard plugins!**
### directories
This option limits the directories watch to those given, which can improve
responsiveness, performance and help reduce resource usage (CPU, memory) on
larger projects.
```ruby
directories %w(app config lib spec features)
```
Note: The `--watchdir` option overrides this. (see `--watchdir` above for extra
info).
Note: Since recursion cannot be diabled on OSX, all other backends were made
recursive - so if you want to watch selected directories AND files in the root
directory of your project, move them to another directory and create symlinks
back, e.g.
```
mkdir config
mv Gemfile config
ln -s config/Gemfile Gemfile
```
### clearing
Guard can clear the screen before every action (which some people prefer).
The this clearing behavior can be set to `:on` or `:off`:
```ruby
clearing :on
```
### notification
If you don't specify any notification configuration in your `Guardfile`, Guard goes through the list of available
notifiers and enables all that are available. If you specify your preferred library, auto detection will not take
place:
```ruby
notification :growl
```
will select the `growl` gem for notifications. You can also set options for a notifier:
```ruby
notification :growl, sticky: true
```
Each notifier has a slightly different set of supported options:
```ruby
notification :growl, sticky: true, host: '192.168.1.5', password: 'secret'
notification :gntp, sticky: true, host: '192.168.1.5', password: 'secret'
notification :libnotify, timeout: 5, transient: true, append: false, urgency: :critical
notification :notifu, time: 5, nosound: true, xp: true
notification :emacs
```
It's possible to use more than one notifier. This allows you to configure different notifiers for different OS if your
project is developed cross-platform or if you like to have local and remote notifications.
Notifications can also be turned off in the `Guardfile`, in addition to setting the environment variable `GUARD_NOTIFY`
or using the cli switch `-n`:
```ruby
notification :off
```
### interactor
You can customize the Pry interactor history and RC file like:
```ruby
interactor guard_rc: '~/.my_guard-rc', history_file: '~/.my_guard_history_file'
```
If you do not need the Pry interactions with Guard at all, you can turn it off:
```ruby
interactor :off
```
### callback
The `callback` method allows you to execute arbitrary code before or after any of the `start`, `stop`, `reload`,
`run_all`, `run_on_changes`, `run_on_additions`, `run_on_modifications` and `run_on_removals` Guard plugins method.
You can even insert more hooks inside these methods.
```ruby
guard :rspec do
watch(%r{^spec/.+_spec\.rb$})
callback(:start_begin) { `mate .` }
end
```
Please see the [hooks and callbacks](https://github.com/guard/guard/wiki/Hooks-and-callbacks) page in the Guard wiki for
more details.
### ignore
The `ignore` method can be used to exclude files and directories from the set of files being watched. Let's say you have
used the `watch` method to monitor a directory, but you are not interested in changes happening to images, you could use
the ignore method to exclude them.
This comes in handy when you have large amounts of non-source data in you project. By default
[`.rbx`, `.bundle`, `.DS_Store`, `.git`, `.hg` ,`.svn`, `bundle`, `log`, `tmp`, `vendor/bundle`](https://github.com/guard/listen/blob/master/lib/listen/silencer.rb#L5-L9)
are ignored.
*NOTE: this option mostly helps when irrelevant changes are triggering guard tasks (e.g. a task starts before the editor finished saving all the files). Also, while it can reduce CPU time and increase responsiveness when using polling, instead, using `--watchdirs` is recommended for such "tuning" (e.g. large projects)*
Please note that method only accept regexps. See [Listen README](https://github.com/guard/listen#ignore--ignore).
To append to the default ignored files and directories, use the `ignore` method:
```ruby
ignore %r{^ignored/path/}, /public/
```
To _replace_ any existing ignored files and directories, use the `ignore!` method:
```ruby
ignore! /data/
```
### filter
Alias of the [ignore](https://github.com/guard/guard#ignore) method.
### logger
The `logger` method allows you to customize the [Lumberjack](https://github.com/bdurand/lumberjack) log output to your
needs by specifying one or more options like:
```ruby
logger level: :warn,
template: '[:severity - :time - :progname] :message',
time_format: 'at %I:%M%p',
only: [:rspec, :jasmine, 'coffeescript'],
except: :jammit,
device: 'guard.log'
```
Log `:level` option must be either `:debug`, `:info`, `:warn` or `:error`. If Guard is started in debug mode, the log
level will be automatically set to `:debug`.
The `:template` option is a string which can have one or more of the following placeholders: `:time`, `:severity`,
`:progname`, `:pid`, `:unit_of_work_id` and `:message`. A unit of work is assigned for each action Guard performs on
multiple Guard plugin.
The `:time_format` option directives are the same as Time#strftime or can be `:milliseconds`
The `:only` and `:except` are either a string or a symbol, or an array of strings or symbols that matches the name of
the Guard plugin name that sends the log message. They cannot be specified at the same time.
By default the logger uses `$stderr` as device, but you can override this by supplying the `:device` option and set
either an IO stream or a filename.
Issues
------
Before reporting a problem, please read how to [File an issue](https://github.com/guard/guard/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#file-an-issue).
Development / Contributing
--------------------------
See the [Contributing Guide](https://github.com/guard/guard/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#development).
#### Open Commit Bit
Guard has an open commit bit policy: Anyone with an accepted pull request gets added as a repository collaborator.
Please try to follow these simple rules:
* Commit directly onto the master branch only for typos, improvements to the readme and documentation (please add
`[ci skip]` to the commit message).
* Create a feature branch and open a pull-request early for any new features to get feedback.
* Make sure you adhere to the general pull request rules above.
#### Author
[Thibaud Guillaume-Gentil](https://github.com/thibaudgg) ([@thibaudgg](http://twitter.com/thibaudgg))
#### Core Team
* R.I.P. :broken_heart: [Michael Kessler](https://github.com/netzpirat) ([@netzpirat](http://twitter.com/netzpirat), [flinkfinger.com](http://www.flinkfinger.com))
* [Rémy Coutable](https://github.com/rymai)
* [Thibaud Guillaume-Gentil](https://github.com/thibaudgg) ([@thibaudgg](http://twitter.com/thibaudgg), [thibaud.gg](http://thibaud.gg/))
#### Contributors
[https://github.com/guard/guard/graphs/contributors](https://github.com/guard/guard/graphs/contributors)