ts-node-dev takes 30 seconds to add watchers

If you are using TypeScript in your Node.js project, you may have come across the issue where ts-node-dev takes a significant amount of time to add watchers. This can be frustrating, especially during development when you want to see your changes reflected immediately. In this blog post, we will explore a couple of solutions to this problem.

Solution 1: Increase the number of watchers

By default, ts-node-dev uses a limited number of watchers to monitor file changes. This can result in delays when adding new watchers. To overcome this issue, you can increase the number of watchers by using the --watchers flag.

Here’s an example of how you can use the --watchers flag to increase the number of watchers to 100:

ts-node-dev --watchers=100

This will allocate more resources to handle file changes, reducing the time it takes to add watchers.

Solution 2: Use chokidar instead of fs.watch

Another solution is to switch from using fs.watch to chokidar as the file watcher. chokidar is a more efficient file system watcher that can significantly improve the performance of ts-node-dev.

To use chokidar with ts-node-dev, you need to install it as a dev dependency:

npm install --save-dev chokidar

Then, you can modify your ts-node-dev command to use chokidar as the watcher:

ts-node-dev --watch chokidar

This will utilize chokidar instead of the default fs.watch and should result in faster watcher initialization.

Conclusion

By increasing the number of watchers or using chokidar as the file watcher, you can significantly reduce the time it takes for ts-node-dev to add watchers. This will improve the development experience and allow you to see your changes reflected more quickly.

Remember, it’s important to choose the solution that works best for your specific project and requirements. Experiment with both solutions and see which one provides the best performance for your use case.

Happy coding!

ts-node-dev takes 30 seconds to add watchers