How to add a watched directory

[pawamoy]

The docs says:

The serve event is only called when the serve command is used during development. It is passed the Server instance which can be modified before it is activated. For example, additional files or directories could be added to the list of "watched" files for auto-reloading.

How can I add files or directories?

I tried this:

    def on_serve(self, server, config, **kwargs):
        for element in self.config["watch"]:
            server.watch(element)
        return server

With this in my mkdocs.yml:

plugins:
  - search
  - mkdocstrings:
      watch:
        - src/mkdocstrings

It detects the changes, but since I gave no function to server.watch(dir, func), the site is not rebuilt.

I checked the source code of mkdocs, and I see that you are using a local function that we cannot reuse ourselves without rewriting it:

mkdocs/mkdocs/commands/serve.py

Lines 120 to 137 in 262c2b7

	def builder():
	log.info("Building documentation...")
	config = load_config(
	config_file=config_file,
	dev_addr=dev_addr,
	strict=strict,
	theme=theme,
	theme_dir=theme_dir,
	site_dir=site_dir,
	**kwargs
	)
	# Override a few config settings after validation
	config['site_url'] = 'http://{}/'.format(config['dev_addr'])
	live_server = livereload in ['dirty', 'livereload']
	dirty = livereload == 'dirty'
	build(config, live_server=live_server, dirty=dirty)
	return config

and

mkdocs/mkdocs/commands/serve.py

Line 69 in 262c2b7

server.watch(config['docs_dir'], builder)

What would be the best way to add a directory with this same builder functionality? Should I simply copy paste it?

[waylan]

you are using a local function that we cannot reuse ourselves without rewriting it

That would appear to be an oversight on my part. The intention was that this could be done just as you attempted. I missed that the builder function needs to be passed to each call to server.watch. Therefore, this is a bug.

[pawamoy]

I managed to hack it anyway, but am waiting for an official change in mkdocs 🙂

    def on_serve(self, server, config, **kwargs):
        builder = list(server.watcher._tasks.values())[0]["func"]
        for element in self.config["watch"]:
            server.watch(element, builder)
        return server