cli-howto.ts.adligo.org

This is the simplest possible, tutorial on how to write a node.js cli (Command Line Interface) typescript program. It targets the Linux or MacOs CLI, or Gitbash on Windows.

Summary of Creating a CLI tool

1. Edit package.json to have a bin section like the following in this package.json file;

  "bin": {
    "cli-howto": "./src/cli-howto.ts"
  }

2. Add the link to node js at the top of the cli-howto.ts file

#! /usr/bin/env node

4. Install typescript, etc;

npm i typescript --save-dev
npm i @types/node --save-dev
npm i ts-node --save-dev

5. Configure Typescript using the tsconfg.json file

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "lib": ["es6"],
    "target": "es6",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "outDir": "dist",
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "sourceMap": true
  },
  "include": ["src/**/*.ts"],
  "exclude": ["node_modules", "**/*.spec.ts"],
  "ts-node": {
    "esm": true,
    "experimentalSpecifierResolution": "node",
    }
 }

6. Run it locally from the current directory;

npm run-script run

7. Install on the local machine with;

npm install -g .

8. View the current installed packages on the local machine;

npm list -g | grep adligo

9. Uninstall the package;

npm uninstall -g @ts.adligo.org/cli-howto

Summary of Publishing your CLI tool

1. Create an account at https://www.npmjs.com/
2. Create a organzation (i.e. ts.adligo.org)
3. Login on your local gitbash with a command like;

npm login [email protected]

4. Run the publish command

npm publish --access public

5. Install on other machines

npm install -g @ts.adligo.org/cli-howto

6. Test to see if it runs

cli-howto

Citations

• Official Doc) https://docs.npmjs.com/configuring-your-npm-client-with-your-organization-settings
• Helpful Article) https://medium.com/@manavshrivastava/lets-build-a-cli-command-line-interface-with-node-js-d3b5faacc5ea
• Helpful Article) https://itnext.io/how-to-create-your-own-typescript-cli-with-node-js-1faf7095ef89