Grunt task to resolve require tags in JavaScript files

The following file app.js requires the file controller.js to be prepended:

//= require "controller.js"

var controller = new controller.Controller({
  container: "#page-container"
});

This is controller.js to be prepended to app.js.

(function (global) {
  global.controller = {
    Controller: function Controller(spec) {
        this.container = $(spec.container);
    }
  };
}(this));

Have grunt-resolve in your package.json

{
  "name": "your-project-name",
  "version": "0.1.2",
  "devDependencies": {
    "grunt": "~0.4.1",
    "grunt-resolve": "~0.1.0"
  }
}

In the Gruntfile.js we put now

grunt.initConfig({
	[...]
	resolve: {
		files: [ "src/app.js" ]
	}
});

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-resolve');

This will create dist/app.js with the concatenated source code. resolve resolves files recursively, normalizes multiple dependencies from and to a given file, skips declared dependencies not found on disk and is robust concerning circular dependencies (does not loop).

In a JavaScript file one or more require lines can be added:

//= require "dep1.js"
//= require "dep2.js"

All require lines of a file are gathered, hoisted to the top of the file and recursively resolved for transitive dependencies.

Multiple files can be listed separated by commas:

//= require "dep1.js, dep2.js"

Dependencies are relative to the source file containing the require line:

//= require "dep1.js, modules/module-1.js, ../common/extend.js"

The complete configuration options are as follows:

grunt.initConfig({
	resolve: {
		files: [ "src/app.js", "modules/google-analytics.js" ],
		dist: "outputdir",
		exclude: {
			"src/app.js": ["Spec\\.js$", "test-*\\.js$"]
		}
	}
});