Nativescript tns deployment commands

Question

I got questions about deployment tns commands. Even after reading the docs and tns --help, things are still unclear to me. So, here we go:

• Why --watch is necessary for livesync, isn't it the purpose of live syncing?
• Is there a reason or situation I should prefer livesync over run --watch or debug --watch?
• When --emulator is necessary? Only to call ios simulator and android official emulator? I've been using genymotion so I assume it pretends it's a real device. Is it always correct? Any other "fake" real device I should consider?
• Where/how can I check what exactly is going on in the device/emulator? I mean, I'm under the impression that livesync only deploys changes, subsequent runs don't do the same?
• What kind of changes requires a full deployment on device/emulator? I mean, complete uninstall before hitting livesync, run or debug
• What kind of changes requires a full platform rebuild? Removing and tns platform adding back? Sorry for so many questions, but imho this topic is worth a more detailed article.

Answer 1

1. The --watch enables re-occurring liveSync's. Without the --watch it just sync it up once and is done. In all reality not using --watch is probably fairly pointless; but there might be some case where you only want it liveSync'd once.

2. run --watch = livesync --watch run (w/o --watch) != livesync

3. --emulator will allow TNS to actually start an emulator, however if an Android emulator is already started then it is not needed as a android Emulator shows up as a "real" android device. --emulator for iOS is needed to force it to use the simulator.

4. No way that I know of to really know what is going in, --watch or livesync only reports it synced files; it doesn't give you a list.

5. The reason to use a run would be if you change ANYTHING in the app_resources/ folder AND/OR add/modify a plugin (anything in the node_modules). Both of those require a complete rebuild. Please note doing a tns run --watch will NOT do a rebuild; it will just sync. You need to do a tns run then after it rebuilds and installs the new version, you can do a --watch

6. You shouldn't have to normally remove/re-add the platforms, but there are some weird corner cases where a tns run or you deleting the app off the device and then doing a tns run doesn't seem to pick up your changes. This is more a last ditch fix. On iOS if you update a plugin and it updates a POD, this is one of the cases you should reset your platforms folder.

One thing I need to stress; tns run --watch === tns livesync --watch; this means even though you THINK you are doing a tns run you AREN'T if you add the --watch to it. I do have a bug report in for this; but as of v2.4 it is still annoyingly/deceptively broken...