gulp-newer
A Gulp plugin that filters source files to only process those newer than their destination counterparts.
What is gulp-newer?
gulp-newer is a Gulp plugin that filters source files in a build pipeline to only process those that are newer than their corresponding destination files. It solves the problem of unnecessary reprocessing in tasks like image minification, script concatenation, or CSS compilation, making builds faster and more efficient.
Developers using Gulp for build automation who want to optimize their workflows by avoiding redundant processing of unchanged files.
It provides a lightweight, configuration-friendly way to implement incremental builds within Gulp, reducing build times without the complexity of full caching systems.
Overview
Pass through newer source files only
Use Cases
Best For
- Optimizing image minification tasks to only process changed images
- Speeding up script concatenation by skipping unchanged source files
- Reducing build times in development with incremental processing
- Avoiding redundant CSS or asset compilation in watch tasks
- Implementing efficient file-based caching in Gulp pipelines
- Improving performance in large projects with many static assets
Not Ideal For
- Builds requiring complex dependency tracking beyond file timestamps, such as those involving API calls or database states
- Projects using non-Gulp build systems like Webpack or Vite, which have integrated caching solutions
- Environments where file timestamps are unreliable, such as in Docker containers or cloud storage with reset mtimes
Pros & Cons
Pros
Adds incremental processing with a simple .pipe(newer(dest)) call, as shown in the README examples for image minification and script concatenation.
Supports both 1:1 and many:1 source-to-destination mappings, allowing it to handle tasks from individual file optimization to bundling, demonstrated with imagemin and concat.
Can switch between mtime and ctime for file comparison, providing adaptability for cases where file attributes change without content updates, as noted in the API options.
The extra option allows including configuration files or other dependencies to trigger reprocessing, ensuring builds stay current when related files change.
Cons
Effectiveness depends entirely on accurate file system timestamps, which can fail in environments like CI/CD pipelines where files are copied without preserving mtime.
Only works with Gulp, making it unsuitable for projects that might adopt other build tools, and lacks portability compared to language-agnostic caching solutions.
Does not check file contents or use hashing, so it may miss changes if timestamps are stale or incorrectly set, unlike plugins with in-memory caching.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
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