npm-commands

Execute npm commands programmatically in your Node scripts!

Motivation

How many times did you have to execute some npm commands in your Node scripts? I had. A lot.

What you can do

With this library you can execute, both synchronously and asynchronously:

• npm run <script>
• npm install
• npm install <module>
• npm link
• npm link <module>

Examples

Let's assume you've got some scripts in you package.json:

"scripts": {
    "build": "node ./scripts/build.js",
    "release": "node ./scripts/release.js",
    "deploy": "node ./scripts/deploy.js"
}

and let's say you need to build and release when you deploy.

For sure you could chain the two scripts and do something like

"scripts": {
    "deploy": "npm run build && npm run release"    
}

That's ok, but you can have some issues because of the different plaforms (Linux, MacOs and Windows) and maybe you have to perform some stuff before you actually deploy; therefore you created your deploy script.

Your deploy script could look like

/* do some stuff
... your fancy code here ../
*/

// we need to run our script, so we need to run a new process
const { execSync } = require('child_process');

// in case you have no params to pass through
execSync('npm run build', { stdio: 'inherit', cwd: 'path/to/dir' });

// but in case you have to also pass some arguments, you would need to change the above into this
const params = process.argv.slice(2);
execSync(`npm run build -- ${params}`, { stdio: 'inherit', cwd: 'path/to/dir' });

/* the rest of your code here */

Pretty ugly isn't it?

Using this library you would do

/* do some stuff
... your fancy code here ../
*/

// we need to run our script, so we need to run a new process
const npm = require('npm-commands');

// arguments are passed through by default
npm().run('build');

// but in case you don't want to pass arguments
npm().arguments(false).run('build')
/* the rest of your code here */

Examples

Changing the working director

npm().cwd('path/to/').run('build');

// install the dependencies from the specified folder 
npm().cwd('path/to/').install();

// install react in the specified folder
npm().cwd('path/to/').install('react');

Suppress the output

// this will show the output in the console
npm().run('build');

// this too
npm().output(true).run('build');

// this won't 
npm().output(false).run('build');

Provide arguments

/* 
 * assuming you have run 
 * $ node scripts/build.js --mode prod
 * this will pass the mode to your script automatically
*/
npm().run('build')

// this will ignore the cli arguments
npm().arguments(false).run('build')

// this will pass specific ones
npm().arguments({ mode: 'dev', runTests: false }).run('build');

.run, .install and .link have also an async version that returns a Promise.

npm().runAsync('build').then(output => {
  // do something with the output  
});

npm().installAsync('react').then(output => {
  // do something with the output  
});

:class

Method	Description	Params	Returns
cwd	Changes the working director	directory: <String>	instance
output	Sets whether to show the command output	value: <Boolean>	instance
arguments	Remaps the CLI arguments	args: <Object>	instance
install	Runs npm install	module: <?String>	output: <String>
link	Runs npm link	module: <?String>	output: <String>
unlink	Runs npm unlink	module: <?String>	output: <String>
run	Runs npm run <script>	script: <String>	output: <String>

TODO

• tests
• potentially cover other commands