gulpdest

gulp.dest is a core function in the Gulp build system used to write files to disk as part of a streaming build pipeline. It serves as the writable sink in a gulp stream, consuming Vinyl file objects and writing their contents to a designated destination directory on the file system.

In a typical Gulp pipeline, you read source files with gulp.src, optionally transform them with plugins, and then pipe the resulting files into gulp.dest to output the results. The destination path can be a string such as "dist" or "build", and gulp.dest will attempt to reproduce the relative directory structure of the source by default, based on the base option supplied to gulp.src. It creates directories as needed so nested folders in the source are preserved in the destination.

Example usage: gulp.src('src/**/*.js').pipe(babel()).pipe(gulp.dest('dist')). This copies the transformed JavaScript files into the dist directory, preserving subdirectories.

gulp.dest itself does not alter file contents; its primary role is to write the data to disk. It accepts a destination path and an optional set of options, and is typically the terminal step in a gulp task. In Gulp 4, tasks that end with gulp.dest should generally return the stream to ensure correct task completion and sequencing.

In sum, gulp.dest is a foundational utility in gulp workflows for creating build outputs, enabling automated writing of processed files to a chosen folder while maintaining source structure.