Concurrently Run `watch` & `nodemon` with Grunt - node.js

Question

I'm just getting started with Grunt and would like to run grunt-contrib-watch [GitHub page] to lint my JavaScript every time a file is modified (with grunt-contrib-jshint [GitHub page]) and run grunt-nodemon [GitHub page] too, concurrently using grunt-concurrent [GitHub page].
As I understand (which I evidently don't) my Gruntfile should:
Run concurrent by default
concurrent runs watch
watch runs jshint every time a file is modified
Gruntfile.js
module.exports = function (grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
concurrent: {
dev: [
'watch'
],
options: {
logConcurrentOutput: true
}
},
jshint: {
server: [
'**/*.js',
'!node_modules/**/*.js'
],
options: {
node: true
}
},
watch: {
all: [
'**/*/.js',
'!node_modules/**/*.js'
],
tasks: [
'jshint'
]
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-concurrent');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
grunt.registerTask('default', [
'concurrent:dev'/*,
'jshint',
'watch'*/
]);
};
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-concurrent');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
grunt.registerTask('default', [
'concurrent:dev'
]);
};
N.B. I've not added grunt-nodemon into the mix yet.
It looks like concurrent is running watch but when I modify a file it appears jshint isn't running. I certainly don't get any output in the Terminal (I thought logConcurrentOutput: true does this).
Here is the output I get in the Terminal:
Running "concurrent:dev" (concurrent) task
Running "watch" task
Waiting...
Done, without errors.
I would also like to run jshint when I first run the default task (as well as when I modify files).
Can anyone shed some light on where I am going wrong?
Thanks!

Answer 1

The watch task exits if there are no files found to 'watch'; as per this issue.
To easily tell watch to watch the same files as the jshint task I used Grunt's templating engine to reference the same Array of files as the jshint task.
I then added jshint to the list of concurrent tasks to run so it would be ran initially and as I modify files (with watch).
Here is my working Gruntfile:
module.exports = function (grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
concurrent: {
dev: [
'jshint',
'watch'
],
options: {
logConcurrentOutput: true
}
},
jshint: {
server: [
'**/*.js',
'!node_modules/**/*.js'
],
options: {
node: true
}
},
watch: {
files: '<%= jshint.server %>',
tasks: [
'jshint'
]
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-concurrent');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
grunt.registerTask('default', [
'concurrent'
]);
};

Answer 2

If you are running an Express server then you can use grunt-express-server. The documentation has a good guide on using this with JSHINT, and LiveReload + Watch/Regarde.
grunt.initConfig({
jshint: {
all: ['Gruntfile.js', 'public/javascripts/*.js', 'test/**/*.js']
},
watch: {
express: {
files: ['**/*.js', '**/*.ejs'],
tasks: ['jshint', 'express:dev'],
options: {
spawn: false
}
}
},
express: {
dev: {
options: {
script: './app.js'
}
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-express-server');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
// Default task(s).
grunt.registerTask('server', [ 'express:dev', 'watch' ]);
});

Answer 3

Jonathon you need to check that your globbing pattern actually matches any files. As the link to the issue suggests you can try the nonull option. I would also suggest to run grunt with the flag --debug so you can see more of what's happening under the hood.
This is a working Gruntfile which launches a node server, watches for changes and livereloads. It uses the grunt-express plugin.