Coffeescript --watch switch not working with node 0.4.7 - node.js

Question

The --watch directive to the coffeescript compiler doesn't work with node.js 0.4.7. How to fix?
(Node 0.4.7 is currently required for deployment on Heroku.)

Answer 1

There is no fs.watch method in node.js 0.4.7. Replace the watch function at line 198 in command.js with the following:
watch = function(source, base) {
return fs.stat(source, function(err, prevStats) {
if (err) throw err;
return fs.watchFile(source, function(curr, prev) {
return fs.stat(source, function(err, stats) {
if (err) throw err;
if (stats.size === prevStats.size && stats.mtime.getTime() === prevStats.mtime.getTime()) {
return;
}
prevStats = stats;
return fs.readFile(source, function(err, code) {
if (err) throw err;
return compileScript(source, code.toString(), base);
});
});
});
});
};

Answer 2

If you can't upgrade to Node 0.6, try Jitter. It's a single-purpose command line utility that does what coffee -cw did before CoffeeScript 1.1.3. Plus it has a few little extras, like Growl notifications when compilation fails.

Answer 3

Here's a watchscript I wrote after having same experience with coffeescript -w option not working. It finds and watches .coffee, .less, .jade files for change and triggers their corresponding compilers in response. Generates colored output for easy detection of when the compilation failed.
/*
* Tested on node 0.6, Ubuntu
*/
#!/usr/bin/node
COLOR_GREEN="\033[01;32m"
COLOR_RED="\033[01;31m"
COLOR_YELLOW="\033[01;33m"
COLOR_BLUE="\033[01;34m"
COLOR_NORMAL="\033[00m"
var fs = require('fs');
var coffeescript, jade, less;
try {
coffeescript = require('/usr/lib/node_modules/coffee-script'); // after npm -g install coffee-script
} catch(e) {
console.log(COLOR_RED,String(e),COLOR_NORMAL);
}
try {
jade = require('/usr/lib/node_modules/jade'); // after npm -g install jade
} catch(e) {
console.log(COLOR_RED,String(e),COLOR_NORMAL);
}
try {
less = require('/usr/lib/node_modules/less'); // after npm -g install less
} catch(e) {
console.log(COLOR_RED,String(e),COLOR_NORMAL);
}
console.log(
'Watch Support',
(coffeescript ? COLOR_GREEN : COLOR_RED),' coffeescript ',COLOR_NORMAL,
(jade ? COLOR_GREEN : COLOR_RED),' jade ',COLOR_NORMAL,
(less ? COLOR_GREEN : COLOR_RED),' less ',COLOR_NORMAL
);
var compile = function (fname) {
var source = fs.readFileSync(fname).toString();
try {
if(/\.jade$/.test(fname)) {
var html = jade.compile(source,{pretty:true})();
var htmlfname = fname.replace(/\.jade$/,'.html');
fs.writeFileSync(htmlfname, html);
console.log(COLOR_GREEN,'Success ',fname,new Date(),COLOR_NORMAL)
} else if(/\.coffee$/.test(fname)) {
var js = coffeescript.compile(source);
var jsfname = fname.replace(/\.coffee$/,'.js');
fs.writeFileSync(jsfname, js);
console.log(COLOR_GREEN,'Success ',fname,new Date(),COLOR_NORMAL)
} else if(/\.less$/.test(fname)) {
var lessparser = new(less.Parser);
var cssfname = fname.replace(/\.less$/,'.css');
lessparser.parse(source, function (e, tree) {
if(e) {
console.log(COLOR_RED,'Failed ',fname,String(e),COLOR_NORMAL);
} else {
fs.writeFileSync(cssfname, tree.toCSS());
console.log(COLOR_GREEN,'Success ',fname,new Date(),COLOR_NORMAL)
}
});
}
} catch(e) {
console.log(COLOR_RED,'Failed ',fname,String(e),COLOR_NORMAL)
}
}
var walk = function(dir, done) {
var results = [];
fs.readdir(dir, function(err, list) {
if (err) return done(err);
var pending = list.length;
if (!pending) return done(null, results);
list.forEach(function(file) {
file = dir + '/' + file;
fs.stat(file, function(err, stat) {
if (stat && stat.isDirectory()) {
walk(file, function(err, res) {
results = results.concat(res);
if (!--pending) done(null, results);
});
} else {
results.push(file);
if (!--pending) done(null, results);
}
});
});
});
};
function main() {
if(process.argv.length > 2) {
dirName = process.argv[2];
} else {
dirName = '.';
}
stats = fs.statSync(dirName);
if(stats.isDirectory()) {
walk(dirName,function (err, files) {
var watching = 0;
files.forEach(function (fname) {
if(/\.coffee$|\.less$|\.jade$/.test(fname)) {
fs.watchFile(fname,{persistent:true,interval:500},
function (cur,prev) {
if(cur.mtime.getTime() != prev.mtime.getTime()) {
compile(fname);
}
}
);
watching++;
}
});
if(watching) {
console.log('Watching '+watching+' file(s) in '+
COLOR_YELLOW+dirName+COLOR_NORMAL);
} else {
console.log('No coffee/jade/less files found to watch');
}
});
} else {
// It's a file
var fname = dirName;
if(/\.coffee$|\.less$|\.jade$/.test(fname)) {
fs.watchFile(fname,{persistent:true,interval:500},
function (cur,prev) {
if(cur.mtime.getTime() != prev.mtime.getTime()) {
compile(fname);
}
}
);
console.log('Watching '+COLOR_YELLOW+fname+COLOR_NORMAL);
} else {
console.log('No coffee/jade/less files found to watch');
}
}
}
main();
If you prefer gist: https://gist.github.com/3083080