node.js stylus imports automatic rebuild, expire?

Question

How do I get stylus to rebuild the css (including imports) automatically upon node restart and append the timestamp?

The problem as schaermu puts it:

My stylus stylesheets were always recompiled, with one exception: when using the @import directive, the imported stylesheet was NOT recompiled when a change was noticed. For that case, i always had to manually delete the stylesheet for a full re-compile.

edit: there's an issue: https://github.com/LearnBoost/stylus/issues#issue/168

Answer 1

When i was building my own jade/stylus based apps, i used nodemon for development. It auto-restarts on any filechanges (after considering an ignore list, see the docs).

My stylus stylesheets were always recompiled, with one exception: when using the @import directive, the imported stylesheet was NOT recompiled when a change was noticed. For that case, i always had to manually delete the stylesheet for a full re-compile.

But in all other cases, rebuilding the stylesheets worked like a charm.

P.S. i assume you are using express as your framework of choice, my experience is based on that.

Answer 2

If you are using express or any connect based web framework you can use my forked compiler middleware (TJ closed my pull request so I think this will never get into the master).

https://github.com/masylum/connect/commit/6ab47b191a1ede91eae90b1608a61f0a7397b082

This adds the option to force autocompilation of CSS files.