Grunt watch does not work on preprocessed files

[amenk]

This is a follow up to #1619 - the error was not fully fixed there.
You can see it in the code of the patch: Only if the file was not changed trough preprocessing, a symlink is created. If it was, still a copy is created and grunt watches the wrong files for changes.

Preconditions

1. Magento 2.1.0
2. Theme with preprocessed file, for example a custom Magento_Theme/module.less contains
   //@magento_import 'module/_collapsible_navigation.less';

Steps to reproduce

1. Execute grunt watch
2. Change the above module.less
3. grunt watch does not detect the change
4. ls reveals: in pub/static there is a (modified) copy of the file, not a symlink. grunt watch -v reveals, only pub/static but not app is watched.

Expected result

1. Grunt should watch all file changes

Actual result

1. Grunt does not watch changes to all files, because some files are not symlinks

[aaronsturm]

It has been 4 months, any update on this from the Magento team?

[InsomniakDev]

got the same problem since i started with magento, no news yet

[andrew-aladev]

I am laughing and I can't stop for 10 minutes.

http://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/85144/magento-2-grunt-exec-does-not-actually-create-symlinks

1. Remove Cache
2. Clean theme by command : grunt clean
3. Run CMD command prompt with administrator privilege.
4. run command : grunt exec:yourthemename
5. run command : grunt less:yourthemename
6. run command : grunt watch

Ok sure, lets do it.

I've done it, than I've seen an additional message:

Edit Alex: Basically working and the right solution, but with the limitations of #6367

ls reveals: in pub/static there is a (modified) copy of the file, not a symlink. grunt watch -v reveals, only pub/static but not app is watched.

[BenGlassAtlas]

Still no word on this Magento? 😢

[KrystynaKabannyk]

@amenk, thank you for reporting the issue, the internal ticket is created MAGETWO-69571.