watch additional files

[xenoterracide]

Search Terms

tsc watch yarn.lock

Suggestion

add the ability to watch files that are not part of the default set

Use Cases

primary use case for this is to auto restart language server, or a tsc --watch if yarn.lock changes when using pnp since there is no node_modules to watch. currently if a library is removed tsc will actually crash when it goes missing. When a library is added tsc watch needs to be manually restarted.

Examples

I think these should be additive, not replace the existing paths, however I can see adding a new option for additivity, or requiring this to replace existing options. If it replaces the current watch set then it should be well documented how to specify them. If no arguments are provided the behavior of suggested would be use the defaults.

tsc --watch yarn.lock

"compilerOptions": {
    "watch": {
      "paths": ["yarn.lock"],
    },
}

Checklist

My suggestion meets these guidelines:

• This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript/JavaScript code
• This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code
• This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions
• This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. library functionality, non-ECMAScript syntax with JavaScript output, etc.)
• This feature would agree with the rest of TypeScript's Design Goals.

[MartinJohns]

when using pnp

Related: #28289

[ryan-williams]

I have a "bin" script in the top level of my project. I use tsc -w to build continuously (into dist/) while developing, and npm link to test downstream projects that use the bin script, but haven't found a way for tsc -w to continuously mirror my bin script into dist/.

afaict that's what this issue refers to, so mentioning my use case; perhaps there is a way, or workaround, for future searchers?