Less Commands

To install Less on the server via NPM:

1. npm install -g less   

To invoke the compiler from the command-line, after installing Less:

1. lessc styles.less   

To compile the Less file and generate CSS:

1. lessc styles.less styles.css   

To get minified CSS as output, you can use the clean-css plugin. After the installation of that plgin, a minified CSS output is specified with --clean-css option:

1. lessc --clean-css styles.less styles.min.css   

To get CSS output on Console:

Syntax:

1. var less = require('less');  
2. less.render('.class { width: (1 + 1) }', function (e, output) {  
3.   console.log(output.css);  
4. });  

Output:

1. .class {  
2.   width: 2;  
3. }  

Pass options to the compiler:

Syntax:

1. var less = require('less');  
2. Less.render('.class { width: (1 + 1) }',  
3.     {  
4.       paths: ['.', './lib'],  // Specify search paths for @import directives  
5.       filename: 'style.Less', // Specify a filename, for better error messages  
6.       compress: true          // Minify CSS output  
7.     },  
8.     function (e, output) {  
9.        console.log(output.css);  
10.     });   

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Important Tips:

• You must include your stylesheets before your script.
• When you link more than one .Less stylesheet each of them is compiled independently. So variables, mixins or namespaces which are defined in a stylesheet are not accessible in any other.