jade/support/stylus/docs/middleware.md

Jade template engine

## Connect Middleware

 Stylus ships with Connect middleware for auto-compiling Stylus sheets when modified.

## stylus.middleware(options)

 Return Connect middleware with the given `options`.

#### Options

      `force`     When __true__ styles will always re-compile
      `src`       Source directory used to find .styl files
      `dest`      Destination directory used to output .css files
                  when undefined defaults to `src`.
      `compress`  Whether the output .css files should be compressed
      `compile`   Custom compile function, accepting the arguments
                  `(str, path)` returning the renderer.

#### Examples
 
 Here we set up the custom compile function so that we may
 alter the renderer by providing additional settings.
 
 By default the compile function simply sets the `filename`
 and renders the CSS.
 
        function compile(str, path) {
          return stylus(str)
            .import(__dirname + '/css/mixins/blueprint')
            .import(__dirname + '/css/mixins/css3')
            .set('filename', path)
            .set('warn', true)
            .set('compress', true);
        }
 
 Pass the middleware to Connect, grabbing .styl files from this directory
 and saving .css files to _./public_. Also supplying our custom `compile` function.
 
 Following that we have a `staticProvider` layer setup to serve the .css
 files generated by Stylus.
 
        var stylus = require('stylus');
 
        var server = connect.createServer(
            stylus.middleware({
                src: __dirname
              , dest: __dirname + '/public'
              , compile: compile
            })
          , connect.staticProvider(__dirname + '/public')
        );

 When `force` is used, the styles will be unconditionally re-compiled, however
 even without this option the Stylus middleware is smart enough to detect changes in `@import`ed files.