gulpfilejs

Gulpfile.js is a JavaScript configuration script used by the Gulp task runner to define and organize build and automation tasks for a project. Placed at the project root, it is read by the Gulp CLI when a user runs gulp from the command line. The file typically imports gulp itself and a collection of plugins, then describes a series of file processing steps in a pipeline fashion.

In modern Gulp workflows (version 4 and later), tasks are defined as JavaScript functions and composed using the exports object, along with the series and parallel utilities to control execution order. This approach replaces the older gulp.task syntax. A gulpfile.js usually starts by acquiring functions like src, dest, series, and parallel, then defines tasks that read files with src, process them through pipes, and write results with dest. Common operations include compiling Sass or Less to CSS, transpiling and minifying JavaScript, concatenating files, image optimization, and copying assets. Example structure often resembles function styles() { return src('src/scss/**/*.scss').pipe(sass()).pipe(dest('dist/css')); } function scripts() { return src('src/js/**/*.js').pipe(/* plugins */).pipe(dest('dist/js')); } exports.build = series(styles, scripts); exports.default = series(exports.build);

Gulp tasks are typically triggered via the Gulp CLI, for example by running gulp or gulp build. gulpfile.js works in conjunction with package.json, where gulp is declared as a devDependency and scripts like "build": "gulp build" or "default": "gulp" are defined to streamline development workflows. The gulpfile.js thus serves as the central place to customize and orchestrate automated project workflows.