Config Update Tool

Are you familiar with the situation when you have a configuration file template under VCS and you have to manually update its instance on a remote host each time you deploy any changes to the template (mostly add new config properties)?

Pretty annoying, isn't it?

So this command line tool could help you update your config files fast and handy. I hope.

Please, consider that it's just an MVP yet. I'm working on improvements (see GitHub Issues if interested).

Installation and usage

Prerequisites: Node.js (>=8).

Sorry, but this is it for now. I'm planning to add v6 compatibility.

Available formats

The tool can:

• read .js and .json files;
• write .js and .json files.

I'm going to add .yml and .xml support.

Using as a stand-alone tool

Install the tool globally (or locally without -g flag) by running

npm install -g config-update-tool

Then use cupd --help (it's like config update, aye?) or full config-update-tool --help to output the manual.

You can also clone the repo and then use npm run help to do the same.

You should see the following:

Usage: config-update-tool [--mode <mode>] [--input <path>] [--output <path>] 
[--backup] [--force]

Options:
  --help        Show help                                              [boolean]
  --version     Show version number                                    [boolean]
  -m, --mode    Usage mode: `create` for new config file and `merge` for
                modifying existing one                           [default: null]
  -i, --input   Path to the input file                  [string] [default: null]
  -o, --output  Path to the output file                 [string] [default: null]
  -b, --backup  Make a backup of the output file       [boolean] [default: null]
  --no-b        Don't make a backup of the output file
  -f, --force   Tool won't ask for user prompt and use template values
                                                       [boolean] [default: null]
  --no-f        Tool will ask for user prompt

All arguments are optional, you will be asked to enter missing ones in interactive mode anyway.

Mode

There are two usage modes for now: create and merge.

In the create mode the tool takes config template form the given input file and asks for config property values in interactive mode, then writes the data to the output file.

In the merge mode (my favorite one) the tool takes template's and existing config's data, then asks for missing properties only, removes redundant properties and overwrites output file (optionally it can create a backup file).

Using as a dependency

You can install the tool as a dependency to your project (probably a dev-dependency):

npm install config-update-tool --save-dev

And then just run it from your code like that:

const ConfigTool = require('config-update-tool');

ConfigTool.run([options])
  .catch(e => console.error(e));

You can pass all or some of the following options as options object properties:

• mode - work mode (create or merge)
• inputFile - absolute or relative to cwd path to the input config template file
• outputFile - absolute or relative to cwd path to the config output file
• backupRequired - if true, tool will make attempt to create a backup copy of the output file
• isForce - if true, tool will take template values and won't ask for user prompt

These options will NOT be overwritten by command line arguments.