In LESS CSS can I get LESS to watch a bunch of files but compile a different file when they change?

Question

I have several LESS files that are all imported into one master file (styles.less). My problem at the moment is: when I make a change in one of the child files I have to save style.less to compile it to CSS.

Is there a way in which I can ask less to monitor the child files but only compile the parent?

Cheers, Ad

Answer 1

I found a solution for MY problem but it would be great for most.

As I am on a Mac I istalled less.app ( http://incident57.com/less/ ), it uses less.js to compile the less for you. As of a couple of days ago they added a new feature:

NEW FEATURE: "backwards @import parsing." If you have a file, X, that imports another file, Y, and you make changes to Y, X will now automatically recompile when you save Y (if auto-compile is on). This feature is automatic; there's nothing to turn on or hook up. You'll see "triggered by: X" in the compiler result when it happens.

Turns out it works very well indeed. Hope this helps someone!