autotest/README.md

Simple script to provide some autotest capabilities for node or python.

# autotest

For use during development of a node.js or python based application. 

`autotest` will watch all the files in the directory in which you started `autotest`. If any change, it will automatically rerun your tests.

The entry point of your test suite can be specified in the `package.json` file: 

```javascript
{
	...
	'scripts' : {
		'test' : 'test/index.js'
    }
    ...
}
```

`autotest --npm` will behave as if you ran `npm test` in the directory where you have your `package.json`. 
This enables you to use a test framework such as [expresso](http://visionmedia.github.com/expresso/), 
which provides automatic test discovery.

Use the `--ignore` argument to have `autotest` ignore changes to specific files. 
For example, you could issue `autotest --ignore "*.log|*.out"` to ignore any 
log files that are created or updated during your tests and prevent `autotest`
from restarting the suite when files matching these specs are updated.

Be aware that to ignore all log files you'll have to enclose the pattern in quotes, otherwise the shell's 
substitution will take precedence. For example, if there is a `npm-debug.log` file in the folder:

```
# autotest --npm --ignore *.log 
--> actually runs
# autotest --npm --ignore npm-debug.log 
--> if you want to ignore all log files, run
# autotest --npm --ignore "*.log"
```

# Installation

Either through forking or by using [npm](http://npmjs.org) (the recommended way):

    npm install autotest -g
    
And `autotest` will be installed in to your bin path. `autotest` works best if it is installed in the global registry 
as it provides direct access to the `autotest` command line utility; if you choose to perform a local install then you need 
to start the monitor using: `./node_modules/.bin/autotest`.