compile with --watch flag results in "unexpected argument '--watch' found"

[wiledal]

Version: Deno 2.0.3 and 2.1.10

Hello! 👋

According to the docs, we should be able to use the --watch flag with the compile subcommand.

https://docs.deno.com/runtime/getting_started/command_line_interface/#watch-mode

However, when adding --watch after deno compile we are greeted with

➜ deno compile --watch index.ts
error: unexpected argument '--watch' found

  tip: to pass '--watch' as a value, use '-- --watch'

Usage: deno compile [OPTIONS] [SCRIPT_ARG]...

From what I can tell, this only happens withcompile, while run, test, fmt all start the watcher successfully.

Are the docs wrong? Is this expected? Or am I doing something wrong here?

[dsherret]

The docs are wrong. I opened denoland/docs#1432

On adding a --watch flag to deno compile, I'm not sure if it's so useful because you need to manually execute the executable after anyway. I usually do:

deno compile main.ts && ./my_executable

[wiledal]

Ah I see. For my use-case it actually is useful, as I have symlinked the compiled result as a global command, and having updates propagate without an extra command is neat.

For my case though, I can set up a separate watcher (maybe nodemon) to execute the compilation step on change.