Gulp 4 .watch() doesn't update file modified time

[takamoso]

What were you expecting to happen?

When I change and save partial scss file, gulp should update modified time of main scss file.

What actually happened?

css/
 ├ _external.scss
 └ main.scss
main.css
gulpfile.js

I edit and save _external.scss, created and updated main.css. But gulp doesn't update modified time of main.css. When I change and save main.scss, gulp updates modified time of main.css.

In other words, gulp will not update modified time of main.css when I edit and save partial scss file. In this case, which is true, specifications or bugs?

Please post a sample of your gulpfile (preferably reduced to just the bit that's not working)

var gulp = require('gulp');
var sass = require('gulp-sass');

gulp.task('style', function() {
  return gulp.src('css/main.scss')
    .pipe(sass())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./'));
});

gulp.task('watch', function() {
  gulp.watch('css/**/*.scss', gulp.series('style'));
});

What version of gulp are you using?

4.0.0

What versions of npm and node are you using?

npm 6.1.0
node 8.9.3 10.5.0

[yocontra]

@takamoso Is the resulting file actually changing?

[takamoso]

The contents of the file is changed! But modified time don't change.

Gulp 3 works correctly. When partial scss changed, gulp3 update the contents of the file and modified time.

[phated]

Currently, this is a feature of gulp 4 due to a limitation of node's fs.Stat object. If you need mtime to change - you need to modify the mtime on the files in your pipeline.

If you'd like to help work on a solution for this - we have an open issue at gulpjs/vinyl#105

[colinsanford]

This may be a little hacky but for those who need a workaround this seems to work

const gracefulFs = require('graceful-fs'),
          mapStream  = require('map-stream');

// modified version of https://www.npmjs.com/package/gulp-touch
const updateTimestamp = function (options) {
    return mapStream(function (file, cb) {
        if (file.isNull()) {
            return cb(null, file);
        }

        // Update file modification and access time
        return gracefulFs.utimes(file.path, new Date(), new Date(), cb.bind(null, null, file));
    });
};

usage

gulp.src(CONFIG.TARGET)
               // more pipes here
               .pipe(gulp.dest())
               .pipe(updateTimestamp());

[WraithKenny]

@colinsanford My current version of that is

const through2  = require( 'through2' );
const touch = () => through2.obj( function( file, enc, cb ) {
  if ( file.stat ) {
    file.stat.atime = file.stat.mtime = file.stat.ctime = new Date();
  }
  cb( null, file );
});

usage

function sass() {
  return gulp.src( sassFiles )
    .pipe( sourcemaps.init() )
    .pipe( gulpSass() )
    .pipe( postcss() )
    .pipe( sourcemaps.write() )
    .pipe( touch() )
    .pipe( gulp.dest( sassDest ) )
    .pipe( server.stream() );
}

This updates gulp's file.stat object in pipeline, letting gulp update the file during gulp.dest() instead of a filesystem operation after the fact. It was mentioned that node's fs.stat is lacking, but that seems in regards to something else, and this seems to work fine for this purpose.

[takamoso]

I'm using a gulp-touch-cmd plugin implemented in a similar way now.

[WraithKenny]

@takamoso That package does a filesystem touch after the pipeline when gulp has already written the file.

[phated]

The "gulp way" would be to modify the file.stat and allow .dest() to handle writing the file so we ensure it is efficient and correct.