grunt-parallel

Run commands and tasks in parallel to speed up your build.

Getting Started

Install this grunt plugin next to your project's Gruntfile.js gruntfile with: npm install grunt-parallel --save-dev

Then add this line to your project's Gruntfile.js gruntfile:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-parallel');

Documentation

The Configuration

grunt.initConfig({
    parallel: {
      mix: {
        tasks: [{
          grunt: true,
          args: ['fast']
        }, {
          grunt: true,
          args: ['block']
        }, {
          cmd: 'pwd'
        },{
          grunt: true,
          args: ['fast']
       }]
      },
      shell: {
        tasks: [{
          cmd: 'whoami'
        }]
      },
      grunt: {
        options: {
          grunt: true
        },
        tasks: ['fast', 'block', 'fast']
      },
      stream: {
        options: {
          stream: true
        },
        tasks: [ { cmd: 'tail', args: ['-f', '/var/log/system.log'] }]
      }
    }
  });

Example

Settings

• tasks - An array of commands to run, each deferred to: http://gruntjs.com/api/grunt.util#grunt.util.spawn

grunt.initConfig({
  parallel: {
    assets: {
      tasks: [{
        grunt: true,
        args: ['requirejs']
      }, {
        grunt: true,
        args: ['compass']
      },{
        cmd: 'some-custom-shell-script.sh'
      }]
    }
  }
});

Streaming Log Output For Never Ending Tasks

Sometimes tasks don't end and consequently you don't want to wait to receive their output till they are done, because you would never see their output. Think of watching files or tailing logs. For this case you can set the stream option to true, and all of the tasks output will be logged to your console, this is letting the sub process inherit your stdio.

grunt.initConfig({
  stream: {
    options: {
      stream: true
    },
    tasks: [{ cmd: 'tail', args: ['-f', '/var/log/system.log']}]
  }
});

Since tail runs till you send it a shutdown signal, you would like to stream the output to your stdio.

Only Using Grunt

If you are only going to delegate to other grunt tasks you can simply put grunt: true in your tasks configuration and grunt-parallel will run them all using grunt.

grunt.initConfig({
  parallel: {
    assets: {
      options: {
        grunt: true
      },
      tasks: ['fast', 'block', 'fast']
    }
  }
});

One might target the task using grunt parallel:assets. This would run compass, requirejs, and a custom shell script at the same time, each logging to your console when they are done.

License

Copyright (c) 2013 Merrick Christensen Licensed under the MIT license.