Rerun
A lightweight Ruby tool that automatically restarts applications when filesystem changes are detected.
What is Rerun?
Rerun is a Ruby gem that automatically restarts command-line applications or test suites when it detects changes in watched files. It solves the problem of manually stopping and restarting development servers or tests during iterative coding, providing a seamless feedback loop. It works by launching your program, monitoring the filesystem for modifications, and gracefully restarting the process using Unix signals.
Ruby developers working on web applications (especially Rails or Sinatra), test suites, or any long-running CLI process who want automatic reloading without complex setup. It's ideal for those who prefer a simple, configuration-free tool over heavier alternatives like Guard.
Developers choose Rerun for its simplicity, reliability, and universality—it requires no config files, works with any command, and uses native OS filesystem monitoring for efficiency. Its signal-based restart ensures the restarted app behaves exactly like a manually launched one, avoiding the quirks of fork-based reloaders.
Overview
Restarts an app when the filesystem changes. Uses growl and FSEventStream if on OS X.
Use Cases
Best For
- Automatically restarting Rails or Sinatra servers during development
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