In Liferay, what is the role of the 'gulp deploy' command?

The 'gulp deploy' command in Liferay plays a crucial role in the development and deployment process of themes. It is primarily used to build and deploy the theme, incorporating any updates made to the theme files. When developers make changes to the theme, this command automates the process of building the updated assets and then deploying them to the Liferay server. This step is essential for ensuring that the changes are reflected in the live environment, allowing for a smooth and efficient workflow in theme development.

By executing 'gulp deploy', developers benefit from the automation of not only the compilation of resources but also from the uploading of updated files directly to the server, thereby streamlining the development process. This command simplifies the frequent tasks needed to keep the theme's resources synchronized with the Liferay instance, which is especially important during active development.

Other functions, while related to asset management, are not the primary purpose of this command, which specifically targets the building and deploying of themes in Liferay.