npmrc-switch

npmrc-switch is a CLI tool to save, load, and manage different npm configurations.

Why Does this Exist?

Primarily, because I wanted to learn the process of publishing npm packages and building JS executables.

Where I work, we have some pretty crazy proxy and VPN rules that make it difficult trying to get the right configuration for different package management systems. We have different networks and VPNs which have access to different external sources and internal proxies. Sometimes public registries are available, othertimes they are not. The goal of this project is to alleviate the pain of switching between different npm configurations for those environments.

Basic Usage

Let's put the CLI through some paces to see what it does and how it performs.

Building Our Configuration & Saving It

Let's say we have a registry that is super insecure, but we still want to connect with it. We don't want to always use the insecure registry, but its repeatable enough that we don't want to keep (un)commenting or (un)setting configuration values. This is a great place for npmrc-switch, because we can jump between configurations for the insecure registry and the standard npm registry.

Let's assume you are starting off with a fresh configuration. If you aren't then read through, and feel free to save and clear to get to this point.

Let's add some npm configurations and save it, as test-config.

# Turn off strict-ssl, as an example
$ npm config set strict-ssl false

# Save the configuration
$ npmrc-switch save test-config

View Our Configuration(s)

Let's double check that our configuration is good and set. We can do this with the view command. view takes a name argument for the configuration to show. If passed current, it will give the current .npmrc file. If given all, then it will show all saved configurations.

$ npmrc-switch view test-config

Clear our NPM Configuration 😱

Oh no! We are going to nuke our .npmrc?!? Yup. To prove a point. npmrc-switch has a command to do this.

$ npmrc-switch clear

Load Back Our Configuration

Let's load back our saved configuration using the load command. It takes the name of the configuration to load.

$ npmrc-switch load test-config

Delete Our Saved Configuration

Now that we are back to where we want to be, we can delete our configuration. This isn't recommended if we needed the configuration again, but hey, maybe this insecure registry finally got shut down, so we won't need it anymore. Let's use the delete command.

$ npmrc-switch delete test-config

How to Install

Follow either the global or npx install below. Its like choose your own adventure games, but much less exciting.

Installing Globally

$ npm install -g npmrc-switch
# Or with sudo if needed
$ npm install -g npmrc-switch

# Run the command
$ npmrc-switch --help

Using NPX

# Just remove the help and add your commands
$ npx npmrc-switch --help

Alias for Easier Use

Consider adding this to your .bashrc, .zshrc, or .profile to make it easier to run.

# If installed
alias ns="npmrc-switch"
# If using npx
alias ns="npx npmrc-switch"