🎉 Version 4.0 Now Default 🎉

For the past year, version 4.0 has been published to npm and could be installed using npm install gulp@next. Today, it’s being promoted from “next” to “latest” which means it will be installed by default when you run npm install gulp. With this, all previous versions are soft deprecated and will become hard deprecated in the coming months.

What’s new in 4.0?!

• The task system was rewritten from the ground-up, allowing task composition using series() and parallel() methods
• The watcher was updated, now using chokidar (no more need for gulp-watch!), with feature parity to our task system
• First-class support was added for incremental builds using lastRun()
• A symlink() method was exposed to create symlinks instead of copying files
• Built-in support for sourcemaps was added — the gulp-sourcemaps plugin is no longer necessary!
• Task registration of exported functions — using node or ES exports — is now recommended
• Custom registries were designed, allowing for shared tasks or augmented functionality
• Stream implementations were improved, allowing for better conditional and phased builds

We’ve written a new Getting Started guide and API docs to smooth the transition between versions. We hoped to have updated recipes, advanced topics, and a migration guide written before this release, but have yet to secure funding to finish them.

If your company is interested in funding the future of gulp documentation, let us know! Or if you need help upgrading, check out our Official Gulp Consulting.