Missing src file silently ignored (even with nonull)

[japgolly]

Hello. I'm new to Grunt so I apologise if I'm doing something stupid.

I see there's been some discussion on concat ignoring missing files and I keep reading that if nonull is set to true then there is at least a warning. I've tried setting nonull to true but it's not making a difference for me. There's no indication at all that a file doesn't exist.

My Gruntfile.js

module.exports = function(grunt) {

  // Project configuration.
  grunt.initConfig({
    pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),

    options: { nonull: true, },
    concat: {
      options: { nonull: true, },
      all: {
        options: { nonull: true, },
        nonull: true,
        files: {
          'all.con.js': [
            '.bower/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.js',
            '.bower/jquery.ui/ui/jquery.ui.core.js',
            '.bower/jquery.ui/ui/jquery.ui.effect.js',
            '.bower/jquery.ui/ui/jquery.ui.effect-drop.js',
            'xxxxxxxxxx.js',
            'src/main/javascript/application.js',
          ],
        },
      },
    },

  });

  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-concat');
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['concat']);
};

Obviously xxxxxxxxxx.js doesn't exist.

This is the output:

> grunt 
Running "concat:all" (concat) task
File "all.con.js" created.

Done, without errors.

[shama]

nonull is a common grunt property that should neighbor the src/dest: http://gruntjs.com/configuring-tasks#files

So you were close but here is the corrected config:

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  grunt.initConfig({
    pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
    concat: {
      all: {
        nonull: true,
        dest: 'all.con.js',
        src: [
          '.bower/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.js',
          '.bower/jquery.ui/ui/jquery.ui.core.js',
          '.bower/jquery.ui/ui/jquery.ui.effect.js',
          '.bower/jquery.ui/ui/jquery.ui.effect-drop.js',
          'xxxxxxxxxx.js',
          'src/main/javascript/application.js'
        ],
      },
    },
  });

  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-concat');
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['concat']);
};

[japgolly]

Ah, that does indeed work. Thank you for the help!

[leslc]

I noticed "nonull" works for the format:

    concat: {
      all: {
        nonull: true,
        dest: 'all.con.js',
        src: [
          'xxxxxxxxxx.js'
        ],
      },
    },

But not in this alternate format:

    concat: {
      all: {
        nonull: true,
        files: {
          'all.con.js' : [ 'xxxxxxxxxx.js' ]
        }
      },
    },

Is this considered a bug? Or are there other reasons why "nonull" wouldn't apply in the other format?

Thanks

[shama]

@leslc files is used to specify multiple blocks of src/dest patterns. nonull is valid within any src/dest block. Your first example uses the regular src/dest block and thus nonull can be specified. The second uses the compact format where only a dest and src can be specified.

An example with using files is:

concat: {
  all: {
    files: [
      { src: 'xxxx.js', dest: 'all.con.js', nonull: true },
      { src: 'xxxx.js', dest: 'all2.con.js', nonull: false },
    ],
  },
},

Of course, if you're not specifying multiple src/dest blocks then files isn't necessary.

[leslc]

Thank you, @shama !

I didn't know about this alternate way to specify multiple files. It works great and I prefer this syntax as well. Thanks!