grunt-run-once

Run a particular task only once

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.5

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-run-once --save-dev

Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-run-once');

What's it do?

Add run-once: to the beginning of your Grunt tasks to have it only run once. Let's say you have something like:

grunt.registerTask('default', [
	// compile different types of assets
	'compile:css',
	'compile:js',
	// ...

	// make sure everything is still good:
	'test',
]);

grunt.registerTask('test', [
	// if `grunt test` is called directly, we need to make sure
	// the sources are compiled before running the tests:
	'compile:css',
	'compile:js',

	// ok, now run the tests
	'test:run-tests',
]);

grunt.registerTask('release', [
	'default',
	'compile:release',
]);

As you can see, running anything other than grunt test will recompile the assets twice. This can be a lengthy step and will unnecessarily inflate your build times. Wouldn't it be nice if you could do:

grunt.registerTask('default', [
	// compile different types of assets
	'run-once:compile:css',
	'run-once:compile:js',
	// ...

	// make sure everything is still good:
	'test',
]);

grunt.registerTask('test', [
	// if `grunt test` is called directly, we need to make sure
	// the sources are compiled before running the tests:
	'run-once:compile:css',
	'run-once:compile:js',

	// ok, now run the tests
	'run-once:test:run-tests',
]);

grunt.registerTask('release', [
	'default',
	'run-once:compile:release',
]);

Well, now you can. As Gruntfiles get more complicated and have more entry points, at some point, you need to be able to think about pruning redundant steps. This approach is more a hack than a comprehensive solution.

Future Ideas

• grunt.task.* helper functions analogous to PHP's require() and require_once().
• JSON based task list with some way to explicitly list prerequisite tasks.
• Add actual tests.

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.

Release History

• 0.2.1 - Update and redd up documentation
• 0.2.0 - First version that was used in a production environment.