git-dependency

Install defined GIT repos to a directory

This small command line tool has the following purpose:

• It fetches / clones GIT repos into a local folder
• It stores the installed git repo infos in package.json

This tool is mainly used during development: The GIT repos needed during development / as part of the package can be defined in package.json, so this information is part of the main repo and can be distributed to source control.

We created this tool to replace Bower, but cannot use npm/yarn for non-JS/Web repositories.

Installation

npm install --save git-dependency

Usage

Note: This tool assumes a package.json in the current working directory.

Install a GIT repo

git-dependency add [local name] [git-url]#[git-ref]

For example:

git-dependency add php-injector https://github.com/bylexus/php-injector.git#0.0.8

This adds the mentioned git repo to components/php-injector and checks out tag 0.0.8.

If you omit the refspec, master is assumed.

The added repo is stored in package.json, in the gitDependencies object.

Install / update repos

To install / update repos configured in package.json, execute

git-dependency install

This installs the repos configured in package.json into components (or the configured base folder) by executing the follwing git commands:

• git clone (for not installed repos)
• or git fetch --all (for already installed repos)
• git checkout [ref]
• git pull (for branch refs)

Remove installed repo

git-dependency remove [name]

e.g.:

git-dependency remove php-injector

This removes the git repo from the disk as well as from package.json

Define base folder

The standard folder for cloning git repos is components/ in the current working dir containing package.json. You can change this location by adding a config to package.json:

{
  "directories": {
    "gitDependencies": "webroot/git-repos"
  }
}

Manually change repo entries in package.json

The installed repos are stored in package.json. You can manually edit the entries, if needed. The structure looks as follows:

{
  "gitDependencies": {
    "[local name]": "[repo-url]#[branch/tag]",
    ...
  }
}

For example:

{
  "gitDependencies": {
    "components-ext": "https://gitlab.kadenpartner.ch/kp/components-ext.git#0.2.2",
    "php-injector": "https://github.com/bylexus/php-injector.git#0.0.8"
  }
}

and then install them with

git-dependency install

Options

The gitDependencies key in package.json takes a special options object to configure some aspects of git-dependency:

{
    "gitDependencies": {
        "options": {
            "deleteDotGit": false
        }
    }
}

options.deleteDotGit

If deleteDotGit is set to true, the .git folder within the cloned repo dir is deleted, so that only the checked out files remain. This saves some megabytes of disk space if the repository is big. On the other side, the repo is newly checked out every time you execute git-dependency install again.

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