mise watch

• Usage: mise watch [FLAGS] [TASK] [ARGS]...
• Aliases: w
• Source code: src/cli/watch.rs

Run task(s) and watch for changes to rerun it

This command uses the watchexec tool to watch for changes to files and rerun the specified task(s). It must be installed for this command to work, but you can install it with mise use -g watchexec@latest.

Arguments

[TASK]

Tasks to run Can specify multiple tasks by separating with ::: e.g.: mise run task1 arg1 arg2 ::: task2 arg1 arg2

[ARGS]...

Task and arguments to run

Flags

-w --watch... <PATH>

Watch a specific file or directory

By default, Watchexec watches the current directory.

When watching a single file, it's often better to watch the containing directory instead, and filter on the filename. Some editors may replace the file with a new one when saving, and some platforms may not detect that or further changes.

Upon starting, Watchexec resolves a "project origin" from the watched paths. See the help for '--project-origin' for more information.

This option can be specified multiple times to watch multiple files or directories.

The special value '/dev/null', provided as the only path watched, will cause Watchexec to not watch any paths. Other event sources (like signals or key events) may still be used.

-W --watch-non-recursive... <PATH>

Watch a specific directory, non-recursively

Unlike '-w', folders watched with this option are not recursed into.

This option can be specified multiple times to watch multiple directories non-recursively.

-F --watch-file <PATH>

Watch files and directories from a file

Each line in the file will be interpreted as if given to '-w'.

For more complex uses (like watching non-recursively), use the argfile capability: build a file containing command-line options and pass it to watchexec with @path/to/argfile.

The special value '-' will read from STDIN; this in incompatible with '--stdin-quit'.

-c --clear <MODE>

Clear screen before running command

If this doesn't completely clear the screen, try '--clear=reset'.

Choices:

• clear
• reset

-o --on-busy-update <MODE>

What to do when receiving events while the command is running

Default is to 'do-nothing', which ignores events while the command is running, so that changes that occur due to the command are ignored, like compilation outputs. You can also use 'queue' which will run the command once again when the current run has finished if any events occur while it's running, or 'restart', which terminates the running command and starts a new one. Finally, there's 'signal', which only sends a signal; this can be useful with programs that can reload their configuration without a full restart.

The signal can be specified with the '--signal' option.

Choices:

• queue
• do-nothing
• restart
• signal

-r --restart

Restart the process if it's still running

This is a shorthand for '--on-busy-update=restart'.

-s --signal <SIGNAL>

Send a signal to the process when it's still running

Specify a signal to send to the process when it's still running. This implies '--on-busy-update=signal'; otherwise the signal used when that mode is 'restart' is controlled by '--stop-signal'.

See the long documentation for '--stop-signal' for syntax.

Signals are not supported on Windows at the moment, and will always be overridden to 'kill'. See '--stop-signal' for more on Windows "signals".

--stop-signal <SIGNAL>

Signal to send to stop the command

This is used by 'restart' and 'signal' modes of '--on-busy-update' (unless '--signal' is provided). The restart behaviour is to send the signal, wait for the command to exit, and if it hasn't exited after some time (see '--timeout-stop'), forcefully terminate it.

The default on unix is "SIGTERM".

Input is parsed as a full signal name (like "SIGTERM"), a short signal name (like "TERM"), or a signal number (like "15"). All input is case-insensitive.

On Windows this option is technically supported but only supports the "KILL" event, as Watchexec cannot yet deliver other events. Windows doesn't have signals as such; instead it has termination (here called "KILL" or "STOP") and "CTRL+C", "CTRL+BREAK", and "CTRL+CLOSE" events. For portability the unix signals "SIGKILL", "SIGINT", "SIGTERM", and "SIGHUP" are respectively mapped to these.

--stop-timeout <TIMEOUT>

Time to wait for the command to exit gracefully

This is used by the 'restart' mode of '--on-busy-update'. After the graceful stop signal is sent, Watchexec will wait for the command to exit. If it hasn't exited after this time, it is forcefully terminated.

Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such as "5min 20s". Providing a unit-less value is deprecated and will warn; it will be an error in the future.

The default is 10 seconds. Set to 0 to immediately force-kill the command.

This has no practical effect on Windows as the command is always forcefully terminated; see '--stop-signal' for why.

--map-signal... <SIGNAL:SIGNAL>

Translate signals from the OS to signals to send to the command

Takes a pair of signal names, separated by a colon, such as "TERM:INT" to map SIGTERM to SIGINT. The first signal is the one received by watchexec, and the second is the one sent to the command. The second can be omitted to discard the first signal, such as "TERM:" to not do anything on SIGTERM.

If SIGINT or SIGTERM are mapped, then they no longer quit Watchexec. Besides making it hard to quit Watchexec itself, this is useful to send pass a Ctrl-C to the command without also terminating Watchexec and the underlying program with it, e.g. with "INT:INT".

This option can be specified multiple times to map multiple signals.

Signal syntax is case-insensitive for short names (like "TERM", "USR2") and long names (like "SIGKILL", "SIGHUP"). Signal numbers are also supported (like "15", "31"). On Windows, the forms "STOP", "CTRL+C", and "CTRL+BREAK" are also supported to receive, but Watchexec cannot yet deliver other "signals" than a STOP.

-d --debounce <TIMEOUT>

Time to wait for new events before taking action

When an event is received, Watchexec will wait for up to this amount of time before handling it (such as running the command). This is essential as what you might perceive as a single change may actually emit many events, and without this behaviour, Watchexec would run much too often. Additionally, it's not infrequent that file writes are not atomic, and each write may emit an event, so this is a good way to avoid running a command while a file is partially written.

An alternative use is to set a high value (like "30min" or longer), to save power or bandwidth on intensive tasks, like an ad-hoc backup script. In those use cases, note that every accumulated event will build up in memory.

Takes a unit-less value in milliseconds, or a time span value such as "5sec 20ms". Providing a unit-less value is deprecated and will warn; it will be an error in the future.

The default is 50 milliseconds. Setting to 0 is highly discouraged.

--stdin-quit

Exit when stdin closes

This watches the stdin file descriptor for EOF, and exits Watchexec gracefully when it is closed. This is used by some process managers to avoid leaving zombie processes around.

--no-vcs-ignore

Don't load gitignores

Among other VCS exclude files, like for Mercurial, Subversion, Bazaar, DARCS, Fossil. Note that Watchexec will detect which of these is in use, if any, and only load the relevant files. Both global (like '~/.gitignore') and local (like '.gitignore') files are considered.

This option is useful if you want to watch files that are ignored by Git.

--no-project-ignore

Don't load project-local ignores

This disables loading of project-local ignore files, like '.gitignore' or '.ignore' in the watched project. This is contrasted with '--no-vcs-ignore', which disables loading of Git and other VCS ignore files, and with '--no-global-ignore', which disables loading of global or user ignore files, like '~/.gitignore' or '~/.config/watchexec/ignore'.

Supported project ignore files:

• Git: .gitignore at project root and child directories, .git/info/exclude, and the file pointed to by core.excludesFile in .git/config.
• Mercurial: .hgignore at project root and child directories.
• Bazaar: .bzrignore at project root.
• Darcs: _darcs/prefs/boring
• Fossil: .fossil-settings/ignore-glob
• Ripgrep/Watchexec/generic: .ignore at project root and child directories.

VCS ignore files (Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, Darcs, Fossil) are only used if the corresponding VCS is discovered to be in use for the project/origin. For example, a .bzrignore in a Git repository will be discarded.

--no-global-ignore

Don't load global ignores

This disables loading of global or user ignore files, like '~/.gitignore', '~/.config/watchexec/ignore', or '%APPDATA%\Bazzar\2.0\ignore'. Contrast with '--no-vcs-ignore' and '--no-project-ignore'.

Supported global ignore files

• Git (if core.excludesFile is set): the file at that path
• Git (otherwise): the first found of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore, %APPDATA%/.gitignore, %USERPROFILE%/.gitignore, $HOME/.config/git/ignore, $HOME/.gitignore.
• Bazaar: the first found of %APPDATA%/Bazzar/2.0/ignore, $HOME/.bazaar/ignore.
• Watchexec: the first found of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/watchexec/ignore, %APPDATA%/watchexec/ignore, %USERPROFILE%/.watchexec/ignore, $HOME/.watchexec/ignore.

Like for project files, Git and Bazaar global files will only be used for the corresponding VCS as used in the project.

--no-default-ignore

Don't use internal default ignores

Watchexec has a set of default ignore patterns, such as editor swap files, *.pyc, *.pyo, .DS_Store, .bzr, _darcs, .fossil-settings, .git, .hg, .pijul, .svn, and Watchexec log files.

--no-discover-ignore

Don't discover ignore files at all

This is a shorthand for '--no-global-ignore', '--no-vcs-ignore', '--no-project-ignore', but even more efficient as it will skip all the ignore discovery mechanisms from the get go.

Note that default ignores are still loaded, see '--no-default-ignore'.

--ignore-nothing

Don't ignore anything at all

This is a shorthand for '--no-discover-ignore', '--no-default-ignore'.

Note that ignores explicitly loaded via other command line options, such as '--ignore' or '--ignore-file', will still be used.

-p --postpone

Wait until first change before running command

By default, Watchexec will run the command once immediately. With this option, it will instead wait until an event is detected before running the command as normal.

--delay-run <DURATION>

Sleep before running the command

This option will cause Watchexec to sleep for the specified amount of time before running the command, after an event is detected. This is like using "sleep 5 && command" in a shell, but portable and slightly more efficient.

Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such as "2min 5s". Providing a unit-less value is deprecated and will warn; it will be an error in the future.

--poll <INTERVAL>

Poll for filesystem changes

By default, and where available, Watchexec uses the operating system's native file system watching capabilities. This option disables that and instead uses a polling mechanism, which is less efficient but can work around issues with some file systems (like network shares) or edge cases.

Optionally takes a unit-less value in milliseconds, or a time span value such as "2s 500ms", to use as the polling interval. If not specified, the default is 30 seconds. Providing a unit-less value is deprecated and will warn; it will be an error in the future.

Aliased as '--force-poll'.

--shell <SHELL>

Use a different shell

By default, Watchexec will use '$SHELL' if it's defined or a default of 'sh' on Unix-likes, and either 'pwsh', 'powershell', or 'cmd' (CMD.EXE) on Windows, depending on what Watchexec detects is the running shell.

With this option, you can override that and use a different shell, for example one with more features or one which has your custom aliases and functions.

If the value has spaces, it is parsed as a command line, and the first word used as the shell program, with the rest as arguments to the shell.

The command is run with the '-c' flag (except for 'cmd' on Windows, where it's '/C').

The special value 'none' can be used to disable shell use entirely. In that case, the command provided to Watchexec will be parsed, with the first word being the executable and the rest being the arguments, and executed directly. Note that this parsing is rudimentary, and may not work as expected in all cases.

Using 'none' is a little more efficient and can enable a stricter interpretation of the input, but it also means that you can't use shell features like globbing, redirection, control flow, logic, or pipes.

Examples:

Use without shell:

$ watchexec -n -- zsh -x -o shwordsplit scr

Use with powershell core:

$ watchexec --shell=pwsh -- Test-Connection localhost

Use with CMD.exe:

$ watchexec --shell=cmd -- dir

Use with a different unix shell:

$ watchexec --shell=bash -- 'echo $BASH_VERSION'

Use with a unix shell and options:

$ watchexec --shell='zsh -x -o shwordsplit' -- scr

-n

Shorthand for '--shell=none'

--emit-events-to <MODE>

Configure event emission

Watchexec can emit event information when running a command, which can be used by the child process to target specific changed files.

One thing to take care with is assuming inherent behaviour where there is only chance. Notably, it could appear as if the RENAMED variable contains both the original and the new path being renamed. In previous versions, it would even appear on some platforms as if the original always came before the new. However, none of this was true. It's impossible to reliably and portably know which changed path is the old or new, "half" renames may appear (only the original, only the new), "unknown" renames may appear (change was a rename, but whether it was the old or new isn't known), rename events might split across two debouncing boundaries, and so on.

This option controls where that information is emitted. It defaults to 'none', which doesn't emit event information at all. The other options are 'environment' (deprecated), 'stdio', 'file', 'json-stdio', and 'json-file'.

The 'stdio' and 'file' modes are text-based: 'stdio' writes absolute paths to the stdin of the command, one per line, each prefixed with create:, remove:, rename:, modify:, or other:, then closes the handle; 'file' writes the same thing to a temporary file, and its path is given with the $WATCHEXEC_EVENTS_FILE environment variable.

There are also two JSON modes, which are based on JSON objects and can represent the full set of events Watchexec handles. Here's an example of a folder being created on Linux:

  {

"tags": [ { "kind": "path", "absolute": "/home/user/your/new-folder", "filetype": "dir" }, { "kind": "fs", "simple": "create", "full": "Create(Folder)" }, { "kind": "source", "source": "filesystem", } ], "metadata": { "notify-backend": "inotify" }

  }

The fields are as follows:

• tags, structured event data.
• tags[].kind, which can be:

* 'path', along with:
  + `absolute`, an absolute path.
  + `filetype`, a file type if known ('dir', 'file', 'symlink', 'other').
* 'fs':
  + `simple`, the "simple" event type ('access', 'create', 'modify', 'remove', or 'other').
  + `full`, the "full" event type, which is too complex to fully describe here, but looks like 'General(Precise(Specific))'.
* 'source', along with:
  + `source`, the source of the event ('filesystem', 'keyboard', 'mouse', 'os', 'time', 'internal').
* 'keyboard', along with:
  + `keycode`. Currently only the value 'eof' is supported.
* 'process', for events caused by processes:
  + `pid`, the process ID.
* 'signal', for signals sent to Watchexec:
  + `signal`, the normalised signal name ('hangup', 'interrupt', 'quit', 'terminate', 'user1', 'user2').
* 'completion', for when a command ends:
  + `disposition`, the exit disposition ('success', 'error', 'signal', 'stop', 'exception', 'continued').
  + `code`, the exit, signal, stop, or exception code.

• metadata, additional information about the event.

The 'json-stdio' mode will emit JSON events to the standard input of the command, one per line, then close stdin. The 'json-file' mode will create a temporary file, write the events to it, and provide the path to the file with the $WATCHEXEC_EVENTS_FILE environment variable.

Finally, the 'environment' mode was the default until 2.0. It sets environment variables with the paths of the affected files, for filesystem events:

$WATCHEXEC_COMMON_PATH is set to the longest common path of all of the below variables, and so should be prepended to each path to obtain the full/real path. Then:

• $WATCHEXEC_CREATED_PATH is set when files/folders were created
• $WATCHEXEC_REMOVED_PATH is set when files/folders were removed
• $WATCHEXEC_RENAMED_PATH is set when files/folders were renamed
• $WATCHEXEC_WRITTEN_PATH is set when files/folders were modified
• $WATCHEXEC_META_CHANGED_PATH is set when files/folders' metadata were modified
• $WATCHEXEC_OTHERWISE_CHANGED_PATH is set for every other kind of pathed event

Multiple paths are separated by the system path separator, ';' on Windows and ':' on unix. Within each variable, paths are deduplicated and sorted in binary order (i.e. neither Unicode nor locale aware).

This is the legacy mode, is deprecated, and will be removed in the future. The environment is a very restricted space, while also limited in what it can usefully represent. Large numbers of files will either cause the environment to be truncated, or may error or crash the process entirely. The $WATCHEXEC_COMMON_PATH is also unintuitive, as demonstrated by the multiple confused queries that have landed in my inbox over the years.

Choices:

• environment
• stdio
• file
• json-stdio
• json-file
• none

--only-emit-events

Only emit events to stdout, run no commands.

This is a convenience option for using Watchexec as a file watcher, without running any commands. It is almost equivalent to using cat as the command, except that it will not spawn a new process for each event.

This option requires --emit-events-to to be set, and restricts the available modes to stdio and json-stdio, modifying their behaviour to write to stdout instead of the stdin of the command.

-E --env... <KEY=VALUE>

Add env vars to the command

This is a convenience option for setting environment variables for the command, without setting them for the Watchexec process itself.

Use key=value syntax. Multiple variables can be set by repeating the option.

--wrap-process <MODE>

Configure how the process is wrapped

By default, Watchexec will run the command in a process group in Unix, and in a Job Object in Windows.

Some Unix programs prefer running in a session, while others do not work in a process group.

Use 'group' to use a process group, 'session' to use a process session, and 'none' to run the command directly. On Windows, either of 'group' or 'session' will use a Job Object.

Choices:

• group
• session
• none

-N --notify

Alert when commands start and end

With this, Watchexec will emit a desktop notification when a command starts and ends, on supported platforms. On unsupported platforms, it may silently do nothing, or log a warning.

--color <MODE>

When to use terminal colours

Setting the environment variable NO_COLOR to any value is equivalent to --color=never.

Choices:

• auto
• always
• never

--timings

Print how long the command took to run

This may not be exactly accurate, as it includes some overhead from Watchexec itself. Use the time utility, high-precision timers, or benchmarking tools for more accurate results.

-q --quiet

Don't print starting and stopping messages

By default Watchexec will print a message when the command starts and stops. This option disables this behaviour, so only the command's output, warnings, and errors will be printed.

--bell

Ring the terminal bell on command completion

--project-origin <DIRECTORY>

Set the project origin

Watchexec will attempt to discover the project's "origin" (or "root") by searching for a variety of markers, like files or directory patterns. It does its best but sometimes gets it it wrong, and you can override that with this option.

The project origin is used to determine the path of certain ignore files, which VCS is being used, the meaning of a leading '/' in filtering patterns, and maybe more in the future.

When set, Watchexec will also not bother searching, which can be significantly faster.

--workdir <DIRECTORY>

Set the working directory

By default, the working directory of the command is the working directory of Watchexec. You can change that with this option. Note that paths may be less intuitive to use with this.

-e --exts... <EXTENSIONS>

Filename extensions to filter to

This is a quick filter to only emit events for files with the given extensions. Extensions can be given with or without the leading dot (e.g. 'js' or '.js'). Multiple extensions can be given by repeating the option or by separating them with commas.

-f --filter... <PATTERN>

Filename patterns to filter to

Provide a glob-like filter pattern, and only events for files matching the pattern will be emitted. Multiple patterns can be given by repeating the option. Events that are not from files (e.g. signals, keyboard events) will pass through untouched.

--filter-file... <PATH>

Files to load filters from

Provide a path to a file containing filters, one per line. Empty lines and lines starting with '#' are ignored. Uses the same pattern format as the '--filter' option.

This can also be used via the $WATCHEXEC_FILTER_FILES environment variable.

-J --filter-prog... <EXPRESSION>

[experimental] Filter programs.

/!\ This option is EXPERIMENTAL and may change and/or vanish without notice.

Provide your own custom filter programs in jaq (similar to jq) syntax. Programs are given an event in the same format as described in '--emit-events-to' and must return a boolean. Invalid programs will make watchexec fail to start; use '-v' to see program runtime errors.

In addition to the jaq stdlib, watchexec adds some custom filter definitions:

• 'path | file_meta' returns file metadata or null if the file does not exist.

• 'path | file_size' returns the size of the file at path, or null if it does not exist.

• 'path | file_read(bytes)' returns a string with the first n bytes of the file at path. If the file is smaller than n bytes, the whole file is returned. There is no filter to read the whole file at once to encourage limiting the amount of data read and processed.

• 'string | hash', and 'path | file_hash' return the hash of the string or file at path. No guarantee is made about the algorithm used: treat it as an opaque value.

• 'any | kv_store(key)', 'kv_fetch(key)', and 'kv_clear' provide a simple key-value store. Data is kept in memory only, there is no persistence. Consistency is not guaranteed.

• 'any | printout', 'any | printerr', and 'any | log(level)' will print or log any given value to stdout, stderr, or the log (levels = error, warn, info, debug, trace), and pass the value through (so '[1] | log("debug") | .[]' will produce a '1' and log '[1]').

All filtering done with such programs, and especially those using kv or filesystem access, is much slower than the other filtering methods. If filtering is too slow, events will back up and stall watchexec. Take care when designing your filters.

If the argument to this option starts with an '@', the rest of the argument is taken to be the path to a file containing a jaq program.

Jaq programs are run in order, after all other filters, and short-circuit: if a filter (jaq or not) rejects an event, execution stops there, and no other filters are run. Additionally, they stop after outputting the first value, so you'll want to use 'any' or 'all' when iterating, otherwise only the first item will be processed, which can be quite confusing!

Find user-contributed programs or submit your own useful ones at <https://github.com/watchexec/watchexec/discussions/592>.

Examples:

Regexp ignore filter on paths:

'all(.tags[] | select(.kind == "path"); .absolute | test("[.]test[.]js$")) | not'

Pass any event that creates a file:

'any(.tags[] | select(.kind == "fs"); .simple == "create")'

Pass events that touch executable files:

'any(.tags[] | select(.kind == "path" && .filetype == "file"); .absolute | metadata | .executable)'

Ignore files that start with shebangs:

'any(.tags[] | select(.kind == "path" && .filetype == "file"); .absolute | read(2) == "#!") | not'

-i --ignore... <PATTERN>

Filename patterns to filter out

Provide a glob-like filter pattern, and events for files matching the pattern will be excluded. Multiple patterns can be given by repeating the option. Events that are not from files (e.g. signals, keyboard events) will pass through untouched.

--ignore-file... <PATH>

Files to load ignores from

Provide a path to a file containing ignores, one per line. Empty lines and lines starting with '#' are ignored. Uses the same pattern format as the '--ignore' option.

This can also be used via the $WATCHEXEC_IGNORE_FILES environment variable.

--fs-events... <EVENTS>

Filesystem events to filter to

This is a quick filter to only emit events for the given types of filesystem changes. Choose from 'access', 'create', 'remove', 'rename', 'modify', 'metadata'. Multiple types can be given by repeating the option or by separating them with commas. By default, this is all types except for 'access'.

This may apply filtering at the kernel level when possible, which can be more efficient, but may be more confusing when reading the logs.

Choices:

• access
• create
• remove
• rename
• modify
• metadata

--no-meta

Don't emit fs events for metadata changes

This is a shorthand for '--fs-events create,remove,rename,modify'. Using it alongside the '--fs-events' option is non-sensical and not allowed.

--print-events

Print events that trigger actions

This prints the events that triggered the action when handling it (after debouncing), in a human readable form. This is useful for debugging filters.

Use '-vvv' instead when you need more diagnostic information.

--manual

Show the manual page

This shows the manual page for Watchexec, if the output is a terminal and the 'man' program is available. If not, the manual page is printed to stdout in ROFF format (suitable for writing to a watchexec.1 file).

Examples:

$ mise watch build
Runs the "build" tasks. Will re-run the tasks when any of its sources change.
Uses "sources" from the tasks definition to determine which files to watch.

$ mise watch build --glob src/**/*.rs
Runs the "build" tasks but specify the files to watch with a glob pattern.
This overrides the "sources" from the tasks definition.

$ mise watch build --clear
Extra arguments are passed to watchexec. See `watchexec --help` for details.

$ mise watch serve --watch src --exts rs --restart
Starts an api server, watching for changes to "*.rs" files in "./src" and kills/restarts the server when they change.