autoless

Another .less file watcher, but this time with:

• Dependency tracking (if a file imported by other files changes, they get compiled).
• Cross-platform notifications via node-notifier (a notification with summary shows up after each time something is compiled).

Usage

$ npm install autoless -g
$ autoless --help

  Usage: autoless [options] <source_dir> [destination_dir]

  Options:

    -h, --help               output usage information
    --interval <ms>          How often files are checked for changes
    --no-watch               Compile what needs to be compiled and exit
    --no-notify              Do not send any notifications
    --no-sound               Do not play a sound with error notifications
    --source-map             Generate source map files next to css files
    --autoprefix <browsers>  Browserslist query, e.g. '> 1%, last 2 versions'
    --compress               Compress output by removing whitespace
    --compile-imports        Compile imported files, not just the files that import them

Pausing and resuming

You can pause watching files by creating a .lessignore file in your source directory (the one with .less files). When the file is removed, watching is resumed.

You can use that e.g. in Git's pre-rebase and post-rewrite hooks to avoid confusing Git when rebasing.