pliers - A build tool

Installation

  npm install -g pliers

Introduction

Pliers is a build tool that tries really hard to do as little as possible. This allows you to use JavaScript to write your build tasks like you would your applications.

FAQ

Is there a plugin system?

Yes it's called require()

Why bother making a new build tool, what is wrong with make

make is an amazing tool, but sometimes you need to do more that just run scripts and create folders. Sometimes it is handy to have a little project context when doing build tasks. pliers is all JavaScript so you can use your existing code and npm modules.

CLI Usage

  Usage: pliers [options] [task]

  Options:
    -h, --help     output usage information
    -V, --version  output the version number
    -l, --list     List all available tasks with descriptions
    -b, --bare     List task names only

pliers.js

Running pliers will look for a pliers.js in the current working directory.

Tasks

module.exports = function (pliers) {

  pliers('hello', function (done) {
    pliers.logger.info('Hello world')
    done()
  })

}

To run the hello task from the command line:

 pliers hello

Dependencies

pliers('test', function (done) {
  pliers.exec('./node_modules/.bin/mocha -r should', done)
})

pliers('lint', { description: 'Run jshint all on project JavaScript' }, function (done) {
  pliers.exec('jshint lib test', done)
})

pliers('qa', 'test', 'lint')

This will run test task and then the lint task.

 pliers qa

API

Pliers is not very opinionated and has very little API surface area. That said there are a few built in functions.

exec(command)

Executes command using require('child_process').exec

pliers('list', function (done) {
  pliers.exec('ls', done)
})

run(taskName)

Run another pliers task.

pliers('runner', function (done) {
  pliers.run('list')
})

watch()

TBC

filesets(id, includePatterns[, excludePatterns])

Create a fileset that can be used to perform tasks on. The following fileset example would return all .js files in the current directory, excluding those that end in .test.js.

pliers.filesets('js', __dirname + '/*.js', __dirname + '/*.test.js')

includePatterns & excludePatterns can be either a string or an Array if you need multiple glob conditions.

Filesets are calculated using the node-glob module. The filesets are first generated when they are accessed, this is done using the id property as follows:

console.log(pliers.filesets.js) // Will output the fileset with the id 'js'

Credits

• Paul Serby follow me on twitter @serby
• Ben Gourley
• Dom Harrington
• Built for use at Clock Limited

Licence

Licensed under the New BSD License