javascript - Is it possible write a gulpfile in es6?

Question

Question: How can I write my gulp file in ES6 so I can use import instead of require and use => syntax over function()?

I can use io.js or node any version.

---

gulpfile.js:

import gulp from "./node_modules/gulp/index.js";
gulp.task('hello-world', =>{
    console.log('hello world');
});

Errors:

import gulp from "./node_modules/gulp/index.js";
^^^^^^
SyntaxError: Unexpected reserved word

---

gulp.task('hello-world', =>{
                         ^^
SyntaxError: Unexpected token =>

Inside the node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js i've changed the first line to #!/usr/bin/env node --harmony as asked in this stack

Answer 1

Yes, you can by using babel.

Make sure you've got the latest version of the gulp-cli.

npm install -g gulp-cli

Install babel as a dependency of the project.

npm install --save-dev babel

Rename gulpfile.js to gulpfile.babel.js

Your gulpfile might look something like this:

import gulp from 'gulp';

gulp.task('default', () => {
  // do something
});

Update for Babel 6.0+ As correctly pointed out by Eric Bronniman, there are a few extra steps involved in getting this to work with the latest version of babel. Here are those instructions:

Again, make sure you've got the latest version of gulp-cli
npm install -g gulp-cli

Then install gulp, babel core, and the es2015 presets
npm install --save-dev gulp babel-core babel-preset-es2015

Then, either add the following to a .babelrc file or to your package.json

"babel": {
  "presets": [
    "es2015"
  ]
}

Your gulpfile.js should be named gulpfile.babel.js