Don’t worry about implementing changes
Nodemon is a free open-source development utility program that can monitor any changes in your directory source and automatically restart your server or applications. Developed by remy, this programming tool is great for easy server reloading so you don’t have to manually do it anymore. You just have to replace the default code with this tool’s so the process will be automated.
What is Nodemon used for?
Nodemon is a monitoring tool for node.js and any applications based on it. It automatically restarts the node application when file changes are detected. What’s great about this lightweight tool is that it doesn’t actually need any additional changes to your code or even the way you work on your code. This is because it’s just a replacement wrapper for the “node” command.
To use this tool, you need to install it via npm. Then, boot up your terminal and run “npm install -g nodemon.” Now it will be installed globally to your system path. If you prefer, you can also install it as a development dependency by running “npm install –save-dev nodemon.” On the other hand, if you do a local installation, you have to run it from within an npm script.
This tool is easy to launch and lets you build on top of it to customize its behaviors. It can detect the default file extension but can also ignore specific files or directories. It works with server applications and even one-time-run utilities and REPLs. Plus, it can work across all platforms and offers all CLI functionality as an API. Sometimes, the CLI arguments can’t be easily controlled but the extensive online documentation can help you enough.
A much-needed utility
All in all, Nodemon is a highly convenient tool for programming. It’s easy to use and any method of using it can be done by checking out the tool’s extensive tutorial. It’s not a perfect tool, however—but this is easily circumvented by its open-source status, courtesy of its dedicated community. This is a heavily-recommended program for any developers working with node.js servers and apps.
