---
name: "guard"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ruby-guard"
version: "2.18.1-3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/guard"
---

# guard(1)

Guard keeps an eye on your file modifications.

## NAME

**guard** - Guard keeps an eye on your file modifications.

## DESCRIPTION

Guard is a command line tool to easily handle events on file system modifications.

## SYNOPSIS

**guard \<COMMAND\> \<OPTIONS\>**

## COMMANDS

### start

Starts Guard. This is the default command if none is provided.

The following options are available:

**-c**, **--clear** Clears the Shell after each change.

**-n**, **--notify** *FLAG* Disable notifications (Growl or Libnotify depending on your system). Notifications can be disabled globally by setting a GUARD\_NOTIFY environment variable to false. FLAG can be **true**/**false** or **t**/**f**.

**-g**, **--group** *GROUP1* *GROUP2*... Scopes the Guard actions to the groups specified by GROUP1, GROUP2, etc. Group names should be separated by spaces. Plugins that don´t belong to a group are considered global and are always run.

**-P**, **--plugin** *PLUGIN1* *PLUGIN2*... Scopes the Guard actions to the plugins specified by PLUGIN1, PLUGIN2, etc. Plugin names should be separated by spaces.

**-d**, **--debug** Runs Guard in debug mode.

**-w**, **--watchdir** *PATH* Tells Guard to watch PATH instead of **./**.

**-G**, **--guardfile** *FILE* Tells Guard to use FILE as its Guardfile instead of **./Guardfile** or **~/.Guardfile**.

**-i**, **--no-interactions** Turn off completely any Guard terminal interactions.

**-B**, **--no-bundler-warning** Turn off warning when Bundler is not present.

**-l**, **--latency** Overwrite Listen´s default latency.

**-p**, **--force-polling** Force usage of the Listen polling listener.

**-y**, **--wait-for-delay** Overwrite Listen´s default **wait\_for\_delay**, useful for kate-like editors through ssh access.

### init \[GUARDS\]

If no Guardfile is present in the current directory, creates an empty Guardfile.

If *GUARDS* are present, add their default Guardfile configuration to the current Guardfile. Note that *GUARDS* is a list of the Guard plugin names without the **guard-** prefix. For instance to initialize guard-rspec, run **guard init rspec**.

### list

Lists Guard plugins that can be used with the **init** command.

### -T, show

List defined groups and Guard plugins for the current Guardfile.

### -h, help \[COMMAND\]

List all of Guard´s available commands.

If *COMMAND* is given, displays a specific help for *TASK*.

## EXAMPLES

Initialize Guard and a specific Guard plugin at the same time:

**\[bundle exec\] guard init \[rspec\]**

Run Guard:

**\[bundle exec\] guard \[start\] --watchdir ~/dev --guardfile ~/env/Guardfile --clear --group backend frontend --notify false --debug**

or in a more concise way:

**\[bundle exec\] guard \[start\] -w ~/dev -G ~/env/Guardfile -c -g backend frontend -n f -d**

## AUTHORS / CONTRIBUTORS

Thibaud Guillaume-Gentil is the main author.

A list of contributors based on all commits can be found here: https://github.com/guard/guard/contributors

## CHANGELOG

The changelog can be found at: https://github.com/guard/guard/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

This manual has been written by Remy Coutable.

## WWW

http://guardgem.org/