server: reload on vim swap file update

[zdenek-crha]

I am using vim to edit files while mdbook server is running. Every time vim updates it swap file I get page reload.

Swap file updates are happening even without file save, about every 30 seconds if there was some activity in the file. Constant reloads in mdbook serve is quite annoying, especially when editing long page and each reload jumps to the top.

I think mdbook watch will have same issue, but since files are opened from filesystem and there is no websocket connection to trigger page reload on change, it is not as noticeable.

I've looked for ways to pass list of exclude patterns either on command line or through book.toml, but there seems to be no option for that.

Version: mdbook v0.3.5

mdbook serve log

The log is pruned to show only lines with detected file changes for better illustration of rebuild frequency. In reality, every Files changed line is followed by book build and websocket accepting new connection on tcp (page reload).

From list of changed files it can be seen that mdbook updates built data due to swap change about 5x more frequently than actual number of file changes.

12:15:31 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Serving on: http://localhost:3333
12:15:31 (ws): Listening for new connections on [::1]:3001.
12:15:31 (mdbook::cmd::watch): Listening for changes...
12:15:37 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/chapter.md", "/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:15:44 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:16:11 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:16:24 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/chapter.md", "/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:16:32 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:17:03 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:17:10 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/chapter.md", "/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:17:18 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:17:25 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:17:45 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:18:20 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:18:37 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:19:03 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:19:25 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:20:07 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:20:32 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:20:55 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/chapter.md", "/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:21:06 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:21:09 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:21:12 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/chapter.md", "/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:21:20 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:24:34 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:24:43 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:25:52 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:26:20 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:26:52 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:27:14 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/chapter.md", "/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:27:22 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:29:04 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]
12:29:12 (mdbook::cmd::serve): Files changed: ["/home/user/mdbook/src/.chapter.md.swp"]

[ehuss]

You can create a file named .gitignore with *.swp to make it ignore these files.

[zdenek-crha]

@ehuss Thanks for tip. I do have *.swp in the globale $HOME/.gitignore file and therefore it did not occur to me that adding it into book directory .gitignore might help.

I'll try to see if I can do documentation update PR sometime this week.

[zdenek-crha]

The documentation has been updated to make it easier to learn about how excludes work.