gulp doesn't exit after running tasks

Question

When running gulp on server it doesn't exit after finishing tasks. This is what I get:

[01:16:02] Using gulpfile /test/test/gulpfile.js
[01:16:02] Starting 'clean'...
[01:16:02] Finished 'clean' after 11 ms
[01:16:02] Starting 'default'...
[01:16:02] Starting 'styles'...
[01:16:02] Starting 'scripts'...
[01:16:02] Starting 'watch'...
[01:16:02] Finished 'watch' after 20 ms
[01:16:02] Finished 'default' after 40 ms
[01:16:03] gulp-notify: [Gulp notification] Styles task complete
[01:16:03] Finished 'styles' after 338 ms
[01:16:03] gulp-notify: [Gulp notification] Scripts task complete
[01:16:03] Finished 'scripts' after 921 ms

It stucks there and doesn't get back to command prompt. And this is my gulpfile.js:

var gulp = require('gulp'),
autoprefixer = require('gulp-autoprefixer'),
uglify = require('gulp-uglify'),
imagemin = require('gulp-imagemin'),
rename = require('gulp-rename'),
concat = require('gulp-concat'),
notify = require('gulp-notify'),
cache = require('gulp-cache'),
livereload = require('gulp-livereload'),
minifyCss = require('gulp-minify-css'),
del = require('del');

 gulp.task('styles', function() {
  return gulp.src('./test/css/*.css') 
.pipe(autoprefixer('last 2 version'))
.pipe(concat('main.css')) 
.pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/styles')) 
.pipe(rename({ suffix: '.min' })) 
.pipe(minifyCss())
.pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/styles'))
.pipe(notify({ message: 'Styles task complete' }));
 });

  gulp.task('scripts', function() {
 return gulp.src('./test/js/*.js')
.pipe(concat('main.js'))
.pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/scripts'))
.pipe(rename({ suffix: '.min' }))
.pipe(uglify())
.pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/scripts'))
.pipe(notify({ message: 'Scripts task complete' }));
 });


gulp.task('clean', function() {
 return del(['dist/styles', './dist/scripts']);
 });


gulp.task('default', ['clean'], function() {
gulp.start('styles', 'scripts', 'watch');
 });

gulp.task('watch', function() {
gulp.watch('./test/css/*.css', ['styles']);
gulp.watch('./test/*.js', ['scripts']);

});

The only way to get back to command prompt is with Ctrl+C.

Answer 1

If you are running the default gulp task (by just running gulp at the command line with no arguments), then it doesn't return because your default task calls your watch task.

gulp.task('watch', function() {
  gulp.watch('./test/css/*.css', ['styles']);
  gulp.watch('./test/*.js', ['scripts']);
}); 

This task will watch the specified locations waiting for changes, and when changes occur, will run the specified tasks. It does not return on its own. You must manually interrupt it.

If you want to create another task that just builds your code and then exits, you can use the following:

gulp.task('build', ['clean', 'styles', 'scripts']);

And then run it with the command:

gulp build