A proof-of-concept gulpfile that reloads itself onchange. Not especially stable and leaves an orphan gulp process, but useful for quickly iterating a gulpfile.

gulpfile.js

'use strict';

var gulp = require('gulp');
var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;

/**
 * gulpfile-reload auto-reloads this gulpfile, called from 'watch'
 * This leaves an orphaned gulp process running after `gulp watch` exits
 */
gulp.task('gulpfile-reload', function() {
  spawn('gulp', ['watch'], {stdio: 'inherit'});
  process.exit();
});

gulp.task('watch', function() {
  gulp.watch('gulpfile.js', ['gulpfile-reload']);
});

package.json

{
  "name": "gulpfile-reload",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "author": "Joe Maller <joe@joemaller.com>",
  "license": "MIT",
  "devDependencies": {
    "gulp": "^3.8.*"
  }
}

if you don't take care of previous spawned child you'll keep adding new processes ...

try something like

if(p) { p.kill(); }
p = spawn(...);