Gulp: target to debug mocha tests

gulp, javascript, node.js

Solution

With some guidance from @BrianGlaz I came up with the following task. Ends up being rather simple. Plus it pipes all output to the parent's `stdout` so I don't have to handle `stdout.on` manually:

  // Run all unit tests in debug mode
  gulp.task('test-debug', function () {
    var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;
    spawn('node', [
      '--debug-brk',
      path.join(__dirname, 'node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js'),
      'test'
    ], { stdio: 'inherit' });
  });

Problem

I have a set of gulp.js targets for running my mocha tests that work like a charm running through gulp-mocha. Question: how do I debug my mocha tests running through gulp? I would like to use something like node-inspector to set break points in my src and test files to see what's going on. I am already able to accomplish this by calling node directly: ``` node --debug-brk node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js test ``` But I'd prefer a gulp target that wraps this for me, e.g.: ``` gulp.task('test-debug', 'Run unit tests in debug mode', function (cb) { // todo? }); ``` Ideas? I want to avoid a `bash` script or some other separate file since I'm trying to create a reusable `gulpfile` with targets that are usable by someone who doesn't know gulp. Here is my current `gulpfile.js` ``` // gulpfile.js var gulp = require('gulp'), mocha = require('gulp-mocha'), gutil = require('gulp-util'), help = require('gulp-help'); help(gulp); // add help messages to targets var exitCode = 0; // kill process on failure process.on('exit', function () { process.nextTick(function () { var msg = "gulp '" + gulp.seq + "' failed"; console.log(gutil.colors.red(msg)); process.exit(exitCode); }); }); function testErrorHandler(err) { gutil.beep(); gutil.log(err.message); exitCode = 1; } gulp.task('test', 'Run unit tests and exit on failure', function () { return gulp.src('./lib/*/test/**/*.js') .pipe(mocha({ reporter: 'dot' })) .on('error', function (err) { testErrorHandler(err); process.emit('exit'); }); }); gulp.task('test-watch', 'Run unit tests', function (cb) { return gulp.src('./lib/*/test/**/*.js') .pipe(mocha({ reporter: 'min', G: true })) .on('error', testErrorHandler); }); gulp.task('watch', 'Watch files and run tests on change', function () { gulp.watch('./lib/**/*.js', ['test-watch']); }); ```

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