Grunt-sync

A grunt task to keep directories in sync. It is very similar to grunt-contrib-copy but tries to copy only those files that has actually changed.

Usage

npm install grunt-sync --save

Within your grunt file:

  grunt.initConfig({

    sync: {
      main: {
        files: [{
          cwd: 'src',
          src: [
            '**', /* Include everything */
            '!**/*.txt' /* but exclude txt files */
          ],
          dest: 'bin',
        }],
        pretend: true, // Don't do any IO. Before you run the task with `updateAndDelete` PLEASE MAKE SURE it doesn't remove too much.
        verbose: true // Display log messages when copying files
      }
    }

  });

  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-sync');
  grunt.registerTask('default', 'sync');

More examples

sync: {
  main: {
    files: [
      {src: ['path/**'], dest: 'dest/'}, // includes files in path and its subdirs
      {cwd: 'path/', src: ['**/*.js', '**/*.css'], dest: 'dest/'}, // makes all src relative to cwd
    ],
    verbose: true,
    pretend: true, // Don't do any disk operations - just write log
    ignoreInDest: "**/*.js", // Never remove js files from destination
    updateAndDelete: true // Remove all files from dest that are not found in src

  }
}

Installation

npm install grunt-sync --save

Changelog

• 0.2.3 - Fixed issue with files defined as array when using updateAndDelete.
• 0.2.2 - Fixed issue with updateAndDelete when source patterns matches only files.
• 0.2.1 - Fixed grunt Compact Format.
• 0.2.0 - Default configuration will not remove any files any more. You have to specify updateAndDelete option to remove any files from destination.
• 0.1.2 - Deleting all files in destination on Windows solved.
• 0.1.1 - Fixed issue with trailing slash in destination.
• 0.1.0 - Files missing that are not in src are deleted from dest (unless you specify updateOnly)

Migration 0.1.x -> 0.2.x

In version 0.2 you have to explicitly specify that you want the plugin to remove files from destination. See updateAndDelete option and run with pretend:true first to make sure that it doesn't remove any crucial files. You can tune what files should be left untouched with ignoreInDest property.

If you have updateOnly:true in your 0.1 config you can remove this option. For those who used updateOnly:false you have to include updateAndDelete:true in 0.2 config to keep the same behavior.

TODO

• Research if it's possible to have better integration with grunt-contrib-watch - update only changed files instead of scanning everything.
• Some tests for common problems
• Some tests to assure performance
• Rewrite updateAndDelete in more elegant way (maybe use patterns from source?)