setup:static-content:deploy need to run for minor php changes?

Question

Why do i need to run php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy each time i clear the cache and also running the same command is time consuming.

I enabled apache rewrite! But still why ?

• Andrea: I had the same issue. Try to delete these folders: pub/static/frontend/<Vendor>/*, var/view_preprocessed/*, var/cache/*, then set your environment to developer with php bin/magento deploy:mode:set developer. After that Magento will create symlink as KAndy says. Sadly you have to do this each time you change a .less file in order to regenerate compiled files. Hope this help you. When you go to production you will need to set the environment to production and run setup:static-content:deploy.
• Sushivam: i had enabled the developer mode, i deleted the pub static and var view folders, but i am not dealing with .less files, i change the xml files and php code and the css and js does not seem to generate properly in admin which works after i run the content deploy command.
• Sushivam: This unfortunately is happening in only one of my instances, works properly in other instance of magento2

Answer 1

In development, you don't need to run setup:static-content:deploy at all. Moreover, if you run this command you will break auto update of files on page update because deploy copies files instead of creating symlink