❗ Guard is currently accepting more maintainers. Please read this if you're interested in joining the team.
It's frequently used by software developers, web designers, writers and other specialists to avoid mundane, repetitive actions and commands such as "relaunching" tools after changing source files or configurations.
Common use cases include: an IDE replacement, web development tools, designing "smart" and "responsive" build systems/workflows, automating various project tasks and installing/monitoring various system services.
For a full categorized list of known Guard plugins, look here: https://github.com/guard/guard/wiki/Guard-Plugins
If you have any questions about Guard or want to share some information with the Guard community, please go to one of the following places:
- Guard Wiki
- Google+ community.
- Google group.
- StackOverflow.
- IRC channel
#guard(irc.freenode.net) for chatting.
Before you file an issue, make sure you have read the known issues and file an issue sections that contains some important information.
- File system changes handled by our awesome Listen gem.
- Support for visual system notifications.
- Huge eco-system with more than 220 Guard plugins.
- Tested against Ruby 1.9.3, 2.0.0, 2.1.0, JRuby & Rubinius.
Two nice screencasts are available to help you get started:
- Guard on RailsCast.
- Guard is Your Best Friend on Net Tuts+.
The simplest way to install Guard is to use Bundler.
Add Guard (and any other dependencies) to a Gemfile in your project’s root:
group :development do
gem 'guard'
endthen install it by running Bundler:
$ bundleGenerate an empty Guardfile with:
$ bundle exec guard initRun Guard through Bundler with:
$ bundle exec guardIf you are on Mac OS X and have problems with either Guard not reacting to file changes or Pry behaving strange, then you should add proper Readline support to Ruby on Mac OS X.
It's important that you always run Guard through Bundler to avoid errors.
If you're getting sick of typing bundle exec all the time, try one of the following:
-
(Recommended) Running
bundle binstub guardwill createbin/guardin your project, which means runningbin/guard(tab completion will save you a key stroke or two) will have the exact same result asbundle exec guard. -
Or, for RubyGems >= 2.2.0 (at least, though the more recent the better), simply set the
RUBYGEMS_GEMDEPSenvironment variable to-(for autodetecting the Gemfile in the current or parent directories) or set it to the path of your Gemfile.
(To upgrade RubyGems from RVM, use the rvm rubygems command).
NOTE: this Rubygems feature is still under development still lacks many features of bundler
- Or, for RubyGems < 2.2.0 check out the Rubygems Bundler.
Guard is now ready to use and you should add some Guard plugins for your specific use. Start exploring the many Guard
plugins available by browsing the Guard organization on GitHub or by searching for guard-
on RubyGems.
When you have found a Guard plugin of your interest, add it to your Gemfile:
group :development do
gem '<guard-plugin-name>'
endSee the init section of the Guard usage below to see how to install the supplied plugin template that you can install and to suit your needs.
Guard is run from the command line. Please open your terminal and go to your project work directory.
Look here for a full list of Guard commands
Just launch Guard inside your Ruby or Rails project with:
$ bundle exec guardGuard will look for a Guardfile in your current directory. If it does not find one, it will look in your $HOME
directory for a .Guardfile.
Please look here to see all the command line options for Guard
Please read how to interact with Guard on the console and which signals Guard accepts
For details on extending your Guardfile look at Guardfile examples or look at a list of commands Guardfile-DSL / Configuring-Guard
Before reporting a problem, please read how to File an issue.
See the Contributing Guide.