@pkgdep/update

Links local NPM packages automatically according to a configuration.

If you link local NPM packages together during the development, using npm ln, this package will help you to automate it.

If you want to install some extra NPM dependencies without the package configuration and the package lock and you're affected by the problem that npm i and npm ln delete one another packages that the other one added, have a look at [@pkgdep/extra]. It plays well with dep-link.

# doesn't work                 # works well
npm ci                          npm ci
npm i --no-save some-package    dep-extra i some-package
npm ln other-package            dep-link ln other-package

Synopsis

Add a symbolic link to other-package:

dep-link ln ../other-package

The contents of package.json:

{
  // prepare the project for linked dependencies
  "scripts": {
    "prepare": "dep-link ln"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@pkgdep/link": "^1.0.0"
  }
}

The contents of package-links.json:

{
  // added by "dep-link ln ..."
  "linkDependencies": {
    "other-package": "../other-package"
  }
}

Installation

This module can be installed in your project using NPM. Make sure, that you use Node.js version 16.14 or newer.

npm i -D @pkgdep/link

Package managers PNPM and Yarn aren't supported, because they didn't implement the command-line flag --no-save.

Usage

If you need to link local NPM packages, you have to do it after installing the managed dependencies:

npm ci
npm link other-package

If you need to link more local NPM packages, repeated re-installations will make your work inefficient. You can enable automatic linking to the local NPM packages after the dependencies are installed:

npx @pkgdep/link s
npx dep-link ln other-package

And the installation of the remote NPM packages and linking to the local ones will become simpler:

npm ci

The contents of package.json will be extended with a preparation script and a development dependency:

{
  "scripts": {
    "prepare": "dep-link ln"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@pkgdep/link": "^1.0.0"
  }
}

And another file will be created to maintain the linked dependencies - package-links.json:

{
  "linkDependencies": {
    "other-package": "../other-package"
  }
}

Linking to local NPM packages is specific to each developer's machine and shouldn't be maintained in the seource code repository. The file package-links.json should be included in .gitignore, which is performed by dep-link s by default:

package-links.json

If you want to automate linking of NPM packages, you can engage [@pkgdep/extra] too:

npx @pkgdep/link s -c package-extras.json
npx dep-extra i some-package
npx @pkgdep/link s
npx dep-link ln ../other-package

And the resulting contents of package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "prepare": "dep-extra i && dep-link ln"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@pkgdep/link": "^1.0.0",
    "@pkgdep/link": "^1.0.0"
  }
}

And package-extras.json:

{
  "extraDependencies": {
    "some-package": "^2.0.0"
  }
}

And package-links.json:

{
  "linkDependencies": {
    "other-package": "../other-package"
  }
}

And .gitignore:

package-links.json

Command-line Interface

Usage: dep-link [-cdjsbplv] <command> [--] [package...]

Commands:
  setup|s    prepare a NPM project to use @pkgdep/link
  link|ln    replace a package directory in node_modules with a symbolic
            link to a local directory with the NPM package development
  unlink|un  remove a symbolic link in node_modules with the NPM package

Options:
  -c|--config <file>    configuration file with the dependencies
  -d|--directory <dir>  directory in which to run the npm commands   (.)
  -j|--[no-]junctions   prefer creating junctions on Windows         (true)
  -s|--[no-]save        save the arguments to the configuration file (true)
  -b|--[no-]line-break  end the configuration file with a line break (true)
  -p|--[no-]progress    enable progress output for the npm commands  (true)
  -l|--[no-]list        enable listing the extra installed packages  (true)
  -v|--[no-]verbose     enable verbose output for the npm commands   (false)
  --dry-run             only print what packages would be installed  (false)
  -V|--version          print version number
  -h|--help             print usage instructions

The default configuration file is package-links.json in the package root and
if not found, then package.json. The file should include linkDependencies.

Examples:
$ dep-link
$ dep-link ln my-dep
$ dep-link ln -d test -v

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using npm test.

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Ferdinand Prantl

Licensed under the MIT license.