Grunt watch: only upload files that have changed - ssh

Question

related
I was able to set up a Grunt task to SFTP files up to my dev server using grunt-ssh:
sftp: {
dev: {
files: {
'./': ['**','!{node_modules,artifacts,sql,logs}/**'],
},
options: {
path: '/path/to/project',
privateKey: grunt.file.read(process.env.HOME+'/.ssh/id_rsa'),
host: '111.111.111.111',
port: 22,
username: 'marksthebest',
}
}
},
But this uploads everything when I run it. There are thousands of files. I don't have time to wait for them to upload one-by-one every time I modify a file.
How can I set up a watch to upload only the files I've changed, as soon as I've changed them?
(For the curious, the server is a VM on the local network. It runs on a different OS and the setup is more similar to production than my local machine. Uploads should be lightning quick if I can get this working correctly)

Answer 1

What you need is grunt-newer, a task designed especially to update the configuration of any task depending on what file just changed, then run it. An example configuration could look like the following:
watch: {
all: {
files: ['**','!{node_modules,artifacts,sql,logs}/**'],
tasks: ['newer:sftp:dev']
}
}

Answer 2

You can do that using the watch event of grunt-contrib-watch.
You basically need to handle the watch event, modify the sftp files config to only include the changed files, and then let grunt run the sftp task.
Something like this:
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
secret: grunt.file.readJSON('secret.json'),
watch: {
test: {
files: 'files/**/*',
tasks: 'sftp',
options: {
spawn: false
}
}
},
sftp: {
test: {
files: {
"./": "files/**/*"
},
options: {
path: '/path/on/the/server/',
srcBasePath: 'files/',
host: 'hostname.com',
username: '<%= secret.username %>',
password: '<%= secret.password %>',
showProgress: true
}
}
}
}); // end grunt.initConfig
// on watch events configure sftp.test.files to only run on changed file
grunt.event.on('watch', function(action, filepath) {
grunt.config('sftp.test.files', {"./": filepath});
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-ssh');
};
Note the "spawn: false" option, and the way you need to set the config inside the event handler.
Note2: this code will upload one file at a time, there's a more robust method in the same link.

Answer 3

You can achieve that with Grunt:
grunt-contrib-watch
grunt-rsync
First things first: I am using a Docker Container. I also added a public SSH key into my Docker Container. So I am uploading into my "remote" container only the files that have changed in my local environment with this Grunt Task:
'use strict';
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
rsync: {
options: {
args: ['-avz', '--verbose', '--delete'],
exclude: ['.git*', 'cache', 'log'],
recursive: true
},
development: {
options: {
src: './',
dest: '/var/www/development',
host: 'root#www.localhost.com',
port: 2222
}
}
},
sshexec: {
development: {
command: 'chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/development',
options: {
host: 'www.localhost.com',
username: 'root',
port: 2222,
privateKey: grunt.file.read("/Users/YOUR_USER/.ssh/id_containers_rsa")
}
}
},
watch: {
development: {
files: [
'node_modules',
'package.json',
'Gruntfile.js',
'.gitignore',
'.htaccess',
'README.md',
'config/*',
'modules/*',
'themes/*',
'!cache/*',
'!log/*'
],
tasks: ['rsync:development', 'sshexec:development']
}
},
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-rsync');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-ssh');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['watch:development']);
};
Good Luck and Happy Hacking!

Answer 4

I have recently ran into a similar issue where I wanted to only upload files that have changed. I'm only using grunt-exec. Providing you have ssh access to your server, you can do this task with much greater efficiency. I also created an rsync.json that is ignored by git, so collaborators can have their own rsync data.
The benefit is that if anyone makes a change it automatically uploads to their stage.
// Watch - runs tasks when any changes are detected.
watch: {
scripts: {
files: '**/*',
tasks: ['deploy'],
options: {
spawn: false
}
}
}
My deploy task is a registered task that compiles scripts then runs exec:deploy
// Showing exec:deploy task
// Using rsync with ssh keys instead of login/pass
exec: {
deploy: {
cmd: 'rsync public_html/* <%= rsync.options %> <%= rsync.user %>#<%= rsync.host %>:<%=rsync.path %>'
}
You see a lot of the <%= rsync %> stuff? I use that to grab info from rysnc.json which is ingored by git. I only have this because this is a team workflow.
// rsync.json
{
"options": "-rvp --progress -a --delete -e 'ssh -q'",
"user": "mmcfarland",
"host": "example.com",
"path": "~/stage/public_html"
}
Make sure you rsync.json is defined in grunt:
module.exports = function(grunt) {
var rsync = grunt.file.readJSON('path/to/rsync.json');
var pkg = grunt.file.readJSON('path/to/package.json');
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: pkg,
rsync: rsync,

Answer 5

I think it's not good idea to upload everything that changed at once to staging server. And working on the staging server is not a good idea too. You have to configure your local machine server, to be the same as staging/production
It's better to upload 1 time, when you do deployment.
You can archive all the files using grunt-contrib-compress. And push them using grunt-ssh as 1 file, then extract it on the server, that will be much faster.
that's example of compress task:
compress: {
main: {
options:{
archive:'build/build.tar.gz',
mode: 'tgz'
},
files: [
{cwd: 'build/', src: ['sites/all/modules/**'], dest:'./'},
{cwd: 'build/', src: ['sites/all/themes/**'], dest:'./'},
{cwd: 'build/', src: ['sites/default/files/**'], dest:'./'}
]
}
}
PS: Didn't ever look to rsync grunt modules.
I understand that it's might not what you are looking for. But i decided to create my answer as standalone answer.