Can I configure Django runserver to reload when static or non-python files are changed

Question

By default, Django's runserver command auto reloads the server when python or template files are changed.

Is it possible to configure Django to extend its file monitoring for this purpose to other directories or sets of files, such as JavaScript or CSS files being served statically (during development)?

This would be useful in this scenario: the Django app reads a set of static text files on startup and I would like the server to re-read them when they change, without having to add this specific feature - simply restarting would be fine.

Do I need to start meddling with (or extending) django/utils/autoreload.py ?

Answer 1

There is no need to reload server, but sometimes there is need to copy static files to be visible for the server.

Instead running collectstatic while developing, which copy recently edited static files (like javascript) from one directory to the directory, used by server.

here is a trick:

• link source directory to behalf of the target (will "override" target directory)
• or run in loop:

python manage.py collectstatic --noinput

then your server will see all changes in files.