This is a brand new LiveReload in version 2.0.0.
Python LiveReload is designed for web developers who know Python.
Install Python LiveReload with pip:
$ pip install livereload
If you don’t have pip installed, try easy_install:
$ easy_install livereload
Python LiveReload provides a command line utility, livereload, for starting a server in a directory.
By default, it will listen to port 35729, the common port for LiveReload browser extensions.
$ livereload --help
usage: livereload [-h] [-p PORT] [directory]
Start a `livereload` server
positional arguments:
directory Directory to watch for changes
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-p PORT, --port PORT Port to run `livereload` server on
Older versions of Python LiveReload used a Guardfile to describe optional additional rules for files to watch and build commands to run on changes. This conflicted with other tools that used the same file for their configuration and is no longer supported since Python LiveReload version 2.0.0. Instead of a Guardfile you can now write a Python script using very similar syntax and run it instead of the command line application.
Here’s a simple example script that rebuilds Sphinx documentation:
Run it, then open http://localhost:5500/ and you can see the documentation changes in real time.
The new livereload server is designed for developers. It can power a wsgi application now:
The Server class accepts parameters:
server.watch can watch a filepath, a directory and a glob pattern:
server.watch('path/to/file.txt')
server.watch('directory/path/')
server.watch('glob/*.pattern')
You can also use other library (for example: formic) for more powerful file adding:
for filepath in formic.FileSet(include="**.css"):
server.watch(filepath, 'make css')
You can delay a certain seconds to send the reload signal:
# delay 2 seconds for reloading
server.watch('path/to/file', delay=2)
Setup a server with server.serve method. It can create a static server and a livereload server:
# use default settings
server.serve()
# livereload on another port
server.serve(liveport=35729)
# use custom host and port
server.serve(port=8080, host='localhost')
# open the web browser on startup
server.serve(open_url=True, debug=False)
The powerful shell function will help you to execute shell commands. You can use it with server.watch:
# you can redirect command output to a file
server.watch('style.less', shell('lessc style.less', output='style.css'))
# commands can be a list
server.watch('style.less', shell(['lessc', 'style.less'], output='style.css'))
# working with Makefile
server.watch('assets/*.styl', shell('make assets', cwd='assets'))
Livereload can work seamlessly with your favorite framework.
Here is a little hint on Django. Change your manage.py file to:
When you execute ./manage.py livereload, it will start a livereload server.
Wrap Flask with livereload is much simpler:
Wrap the Bottle app with livereload server:
The full list of changes between each Python LiveReload release.