LiveLocalhost

A simple localhost development server with hot reloading. Serves any local directory, watches for file changes, and triggers live browser reloading.

Command line usage

To use LiveLocalhost from the command line, install it globally:

npm install livelocalhost -g

To serve static files from the current directory on HTTP port 8000:

llh

or

livelocalhost

and access http://localhost:8000/ in your browser.

Options

Options can be defined with a single dash (-), double dash (--), in -name=value, or -name value format.

parameter	description
--port, --serveport <port>	HTTP port (default 8000)
--dir, --servedir <dir>	directory to serve (default ./)
--reloadservice <path>	path to reload service (default /livelocalhost.service)
--hotloadJS	enable hot reloading of JavaScript files (default false)
--watchDebounce <ms>	debounce time for file changes (default 600)
--v, --version	show version information
--?, --help	show help

The reloadservice need only be changed if you want to disable or change the Server Sent Events handler path. By default, the path is /livelocalhost.service. A client-side script at /livelocalhost.service.js is injected into HTML files to trigger reloading.

Hot reloading of client-side JavaScript is disabled unless you enable --hotloadJS. This refreshes the whole page when any JavaScript file changes.

--watchDebounce sets a delay time to ensures multiple file changes do not trigger more than one live reload.

Examples:

llh -port 8080 --dir=./build/ -reloadservice /reload
llh --port=8080 -dir ./build/ --reloadservice=/reload

The first two non-dashed parameters are presumed to be the port and directory:

llh 8080 ./build/ --reloadservice=0

Stop the server with Ctrl | Cmd + C.

Node.js module usage

Install livelocalhost in your Node.js project:

npm install livelocalhost

Optionally add --save-dev to ensure it's only loaded in development mode.

Import the module:

import { livelocalhost } from 'livelocalhost';

set options as necessary, e.g.

livelocalhost.serveport = 8080;
livelocalhost.servedir = './build/';
livelocalhost.reloadservice = '/reload';
livelocalhost.hotloadJS = true;
livelocalhost.watchDebounce = 2000;

and start the server:

livelocalhost.start();

Changes

1.0.3

• now works on Windows (path issue fixed)

1.0.2

• all CSS files are hot reloaded if one changes to ensure @import works.
• fixed bug that reloaded all <link> elements such as sitemaps, feeds, and favicons.

1.0.1

• package.json fix.