@kbn/cli-dev-mode

This package exposes a function that manages the alternate behavior of the Kibana cli when using the --dev flag. This mode provides several useful features in a single CLI for a nice developer experience:

• automatic server restarts when code changes
• runs the @kbn/optimizer to build browser bundles
• runs a base path proxy which helps developers test that they are writing code which is compatible with custom basePath settings while they work
• pauses requests when the server or optimizer are not ready to handle requests so that when users load Kibana in the browser it's always using the code as it exists on disk

To accomplish this, and to make it easier to test, the CliDevMode class manages the following objects.

Watcher

The Watcher manages a @parcel/watcher instance to watch the server files, logs about file changes observed and provides an observable to the DevServer via its serverShouldRestart$() method.

DevServer

The DevServer object is responsible for everything related to running and restarting the Kibana server process:

• listens to restart notifications from the Watcher object, sending SIGKILL to the existing server and launching a new instance with the current code
• writes the stdout/stderr logs from the Kibana server to the parent process
• gracefully kills the process if the SIGINT signal is sent
• kills the server if the SIGTERM signal is sent, process.exit() is used, a second SIGINT is sent, or the graceful shutdown times out
• proxies SIGHUP notifications to the child process, though the core team is working on migrating this functionality to the KP and making this unnecessary

Optimizer

The Optimizer object manages a @kbn/optimizer instance, adapting its configuration and logging to the data available to the CLI.

BasePathProxyServer

This proxy injects a random three character base path in the URL that Kibana is served from to help ensure that Kibana features are written to adapt to custom base path configurations from users.

The basePathProxy also has another important job, ensuring that requests don't fail because the server is restarting and that the browser receives front-end assets containing all saved changes. We accomplish this by observing the ready state of the Optimizer and DevServer objects and pausing all requests through the proxy until both objects report that they aren't building/restarting based on recently saved changes.