Grunt watch - doesn't see file changes

[davefarthing]

[QUESTION]
I have node installed and have run 'npm install' but when trying to use grunt watch doesn't pick up on any of the changes i'm making.

I can successfully run 'grunt refresh' to recompile but watch does nothing.

it runs without error or warning and sites at a prompt:
Running "watch" task Waiting...

If i then make a change in the less files e.g. app/design/frontend/Magento/luma/Magento_LayeredNavigation/web/css/source/_module.less (simply trying to change option title color)

No change is recognised and no recompile occurs. I'm running under OS X if that has any influence.

What am I missing (or not understanding)?

ALSO:

according to http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.0/frontend-dev-guide/css-topics/css_debug.html

"grunt exec:
Republishes symlinks to the source files to the pub/static/frontend/<Vendor>/<theme>/<locale> directory."
All of my files are in pub/static/frontend/.. as copies not as symlinks (is this wrong)

[bgkavinga]

It does not work for me too. I tried on Linux and Windows.

[davefarthing]

Ok - a little more information.

Grunt watch does pick up changes i make to files in pub/static
e.g. if i make and edit to pub/static/frontend/Magento/luma/en_US/Magento_LayeredNavigation/css/source/_module.scss

However this file is not a symlink (I believe it is intended to be) rather is is a copy of the theme's file.

So I think the problem is that grunt exec is not creating symlinks but copying the files instead..

[gotbahn]

Same in #1590

@davefarthing, @bgkavinga
Hello, thank you for reporting this issues. We localized a problem, you are right, currently copies of LESS source files are created instead of symlinks in client side less compilation.
Created internal ticket for that MAGETWO-40652

[davefarthing]

Great Thanks!

Just to clear things up a little: should grunt watch work with server-side compilation? I've tried both but didn't like the client-side compilation, I was under the impression grunt was a solution offering auto refresh from server-side compilation (!?).

My current settings are to have server-side compilation and grunt exec/watch. (if that helps bottom out the problem)

[gotbahn]

Just to clear things up a little: should grunt watch work with server-side compilation?

My current settings are to have server-side compilation and grunt exec/watch. (if that helps bottom out the problem)

@davefarthing yea, mine too. grunt refresh actually use the same mechanism as server side compilation do and than works with generated files with grunt watch or grunt less:{theme}.
So answer for your question is yes.

Client side compilation is more another feature that can be used for quick changes, when developer not familiar with Grunt or not have node.js or don't want each time manually delete pub/static/... for php compilation which also really slow.

[gotbahn]

Should be fixed. Please update to the latest version

[davefarthing]

Hi,
Do you mean the latest version from Master?

I have pulled that latest master, but the problem still exists. I can see that the source less file are now under 'var/view_processed/source' rather than 'pub' but they are still copies of the original modules' less files rather than symlinks.

Same symptoms:
'grunt refresh' picks up my theme changes. Presumably because it first cleans and re-copies the file from the theme source to the 'var/view_processed/source' folder.

'grunt watch' doesn't see any changes to the theme files

'grunt less:luma' doesn't see any changes either.

If I 'grunt clean:luma' first then 'grunt less:luma' it will show my changes.

Seems again the only missing piece is file copies as opposed to symlinks.

[mazhalai]

@davefarthing All fixes are delivered to develop

[gotbahn]

@davefarthing latest default develop branch
I have checked this one.

[debuysserk]

@godban we're having the same issues on the master branch as written here. But however we try to switch to or merge the develop branch into the master, we can't get our current 1.0.0 beta (with sample data) to work with the develop files. Grunt install fails too by the way, on the step "npg instal". Something to do with phantomjs.

We're currently deleting both the preprocessed files & the pub/static files (although preprocessed files cache is disabled). Only when both of these dirs are empty, and we reload the pages, everything is fine (although sometimes on 2nd load, which is a known issue because of slowness). It looks like the pub/static files are created from the preprocessed files in the var directory, so deleting both of these is the only way we can see our css/less updates.

We're in the process of creating our own base theme, extending the blank theme, but are running into these less issues & some others we're hoping to be fixed in one of the thousand commits the develop branch is ahead of the master.

Thx.

[gotbahn]

@debuysserk here is a patch https://gist.github.com/godban/8cb178f9a84ed85f1eac
It should solve issue with symlinks generation in beta.