Node.js make Nodemon abundant

Nodemon done a great job, but …

Until today, Nodemon helped to restart processes during development in Node.js to apply changes. This worked very well in the majority of developments, although there were problems with Typescript and Nodemon.

Since Node.js 18.11+, Node supports watch mode with the --watch parameter. This makes Nodemon obsolete.

When you start a Node.js application from the command line using the --watch parameter, it sets up a file watcher that automatically restarts your application whenever changes are made to the source code. This provides a few benefits:

Here are some benefits of using --watch instead of nodemon:

• No additional dependencies: Since --watch is built into Node.js, there is no need to install any additional dependencies, which can simplify the setup process and reduce the risk of version conflicts between packages.
• Lightweight: --watch is a lightweight solution that only provides file watching functionality. This can be beneficial if you don’t need the additional features that nodemon provides, such as support for different file extensions or ignoring specific files or directories.
• Low overhead: Since --watch is built into Node.js, it can have lower overhead than nodemon, which relies on an additional process to monitor file changes.
• More control: The --watch option provides more fine-grained control over how file changes are detected and handled. For example, you can specify which files or directories to watch, how frequently to check for changes, and what actions to take when changes are detected.

node --watch app.js

Watch all files changes in multiple locations.

node --watch-path=./src --watch-path=./lib app.js