rusteal watch

The goal: save a Rust file and have the change in the editor, with nothing else to run.

cd ~/Projects/MyGame
rusteal watch

rusteal watch builds the Rust libraries every time a source file changes, the same build as rusteal build. With the editor reloading each library when it is deployed, saving is the whole loop: save, build, deploy, reload.

rusteal watch: watching
  /home/me/Projects/MyGame/Rust
Each change builds and deploys the libraries (rusteal build); Ctrl+C stops.

Leave it running in a terminal next to the editor. Ctrl+C stops it.

What it watches

The .rs and .toml files of the project’s Rust workspace, and of each Rust plugin’s workspace. It does not watch target/ or the generated bindings/.

It waits until the files have settled before building, so saving several files at once, or a formatter rewriting them, makes one build.

When the build fails

The build’s errors are printed, and the watch goes on:

rusteal watch: the build failed (above), waiting for changes

The editor keeps running the last library that built. Fix the error and save: the next build deploys and reloads.

One plugin

rusteal watch --plugin Inventory

Watches and builds only that plugin’s library, which is what working on a plugin needs.

What it does not do

rusteal watch runs steps 4 and 5 of the build. A change to rusteal.toml or to the engine version needs rusteal build --all: stop the watch, run it, and start the watch again.