Gulp is a free, open-source, and cross-platform JavaScript toolkit that allows you to automate many development tasks. It is a task runner built on Node.js and npm and used for automating many time-consuming tasks such as minification, concatenation, cache busting, unit testing, linting, optimization, etc. Gulp plugins are simple and designed to do a single job.
In this post, we will show you how to install Gulp on CentOS 8.
Prerequisites
- A server running CentOS 8.
- A root password is configured on the server.
Install Node.js
Gulp requires a Node.js package to be installed in your system.
First, install the Curl with the following command:
dnf install curl -y
Next, add the Node source repository with the following command:
curl -sL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | bash -
Next, install the Node.js using the following command:
dnf install nodejs -y
Once the Node.js is installed, verify the installed version of Node.js with the following command:
node -v
You should see the following output:
v16.6.1
You can also verify the NPM version with the following command:
npm -v
You should see the following output:
7.20.3
Install Gulp CLI
First, you will need to install the Gulp CLI tool in your system. Gulp CLI is a tool used to manage the Gulp application.
You can install it using the NPM command as shown below:
npm install -g gulp-cli
Once the Gulp CLI is installed, you can proceed to the next step.
Install Gulp.js
First, create an application directory with the following command:
mkdir myapp
Next, change the directory to myapp and create a new application with the following command:
cd myapp npm init
You will be asked to provide your application information as shown below:
package name: (myapp) version: (1.0.0) description: My app entry point: (index.js) test command: "echo "My app" $$ exit 1" git repository: keywords: author: hitesh license: (ISC) About to write to /root/myapp/package.json: { "name": "myapp", "version": "1.0.0", "description": "My app", "main": "index.js", "scripts": { "test": "\"echo \"My app\" $$ exit 1\"" }, "author": "hitesh", "license": "ISC" } Is this OK? (yes) yes
Next, add the Gulp module to your application with the following command:
npm install --save-dev gulp
Next, verify the Gulp version with the following command:
gulp --version
You should see the following output:
CLI version: 2.3.0 Local version: 4.0.2
Create an Application with Gulp.js
In this section, we will create a simple Gulp.js application.
First, change the directory to myapp and create a gulpfile.js with the following command:
cd myapp
nano gulpfile.js
Add the following code:
var gulp = require('gulp'); gulp.task('hello', function(done) { console.log('My First Gulp App!!!'); done(); });
Save the file when you are finished then run the Gulp task using the following command:
gulp hello
You should get the following output:
[05:07:52] Using gulpfile ~/myapp/gulpfile.js [05:07:52] Starting 'hello'... My First Gulp App!!! [05:07:52] Finished 'hello' after 4.81 ms
Conclusion
in the above guide, we explained how to install Gulp.js on a CentOS 8 system. You can now start creating your first application using Gulp.js. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions.