grunt-load-options

This Grunt plugin provides a very simple way to modularize your Gruntfile. Put plugin configuration options in grunt/config and tasks/aliases in grunt/tasks. Use JavaScript, CoffeeScript, or JSON.

In other words, stop fussing with your Gruntfile whenever you start a new project. Instead, just copy over the files you need. See this project’s Gruntfile and grunt folder for an example.

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt >=0.4.0.

npm install --save-dev grunt-load-options

Once the plugin has been installed, it can be enabled in your Gruntfile.js (or use load-grunt-tasks and skip this step):

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-load-options');

Example usage

Use this plugin in conjunction with load-grunt-tasks for a nice, clean, static Gruntfile and easily portable Grunt options and tasks:

module.exports = function (grunt) {
  require('load-grunt-tasks')(grunt);
};

That’s it! That’s your entire Gruntfile, forever, for every project. Behind the scenes, this plugin loads your plugin configuration and tasks from the grunt subfolder.

Plugin options

To configure a Grunt plugin, create a file in grunt/config or grunt/options (either works). The name of the file should correspond to the property of the configuration object we want to define. For example, if you want to configure grunt-contrib-jshint, create a file named jshint.js:

module.exports = {
  all: [
    'grunt/**/*.js',
    'tasks/**/*.js'
  ],
  options: {
    jshintrc: '.jshintrc'
  }
};

Or just provide JSON! (Make sure to give your file a .json extension.)

{
  "all": [
    "grunt/**/*.js",
    "tasks/**/*.js"
  ],
  "options": {
    "jshintrc": ".jshintrc"
  }
}

If you need access to the grunt object, wrap it in a function with grunt as a parameter and return your options object. Here’s pkg.js:

module.exports = function (grunt) {
  return grunt.file.readJSON('package.json');
};

You can also use CoffeeScript. (Make sure to give your file a .coffee extension.)

module.exports = (grunt) ->
  grunt.file.readJSON "package.json"

Tasks and aliases

To create a task or alias, create a file in grunt/tasks or grunt/aliases:

Every task needs access to the grunt object, so wrap it in a function with grunt as a parameter. No need to return anything, though.

module.exports = function (grunt) {
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['jshint']);
};

CoffeeScript works here, too:

module.exports = (grunt) ->
  console.log grunt.template.process "grunt-load-options v<%= pkg.version %>"

Custom folder

Point the plugin to a different folder using the optional options parameter.

module.exports = function (grunt) {
  require('load-grunt-tasks')(grunt, {folder: '~/.grunt-options'});
};