npmsvr

Description

npmsvr is a tiny front end to npm and npm-server that saves you keystrokes when testing NodeJS apps and libs prior to publishing them to the npm registry.

$ npmsvr on      // Registers local registry server
$ npmsvr start   // Start local registry server
$ npmsvr off     // Deregisters local registry server`

I've forked npm-server and started rewrite to use cli-config that will implement this command line interface but for now we just install the two apps npmsvr and npm-server.

Installation

$ [sudo] npm install -g npm-server
$ [sudo] npm install -g npmsvr

Using npmsvr to test node apps before publishing to npm registry

In order to fully test the package configuration and ensure that modules behave as they will on the final deployment I now use the following procedure. It completely avoids the need to hack your node_module directories or require() code so when you go to deploy it just works.

For internal projects or pre-release to github you also might want to prevent accidental publication by anyone in your team by setting "private": true in your package.json so npm will then refuse to publish it.

1. Create a project directory under git version control and add all your node modules as subdirectories. Subdirectory names must match their package names. If you're working with github, you will want to create a separate git repo for each module directory. They can be git submodules in your project repo. Add node_module to your .gitignore files.

2. Used npmsvr to set your npm registry to localhost so now npm will talk to your local npm server to fetch packages. Any it finds as subdirectories it will send. Any it does not find it will proxy to registry.npmjs.org . ` $ npmsvr on $ cd ~/projects $ npmsvr start

3. Start a new shell and create a separate sandbox directory $ mkdir sandbox $ cd sandbox

4. Install your app using your local registry server. Clear local npm cache and reinstall your app. I do this on one line so it's easy to redo via the shell. You might want to script it.

   $ npm cache clear; sleep 3; npm uninstall -g myapp; sleep 3; npm install -g myapp

5. Test your app:

   $ myapp ....

6. Deregister local npm registry when you're done installing:

   $ npmsvr off

7. Once you've completed testing you can publish your app and retest the deployment with npm-server stopped.

$ cd ~/projects $ npm publish app

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Rather than register & deregister your local server, you can just use the localhost server for a one off install: $ npm --registry=http://localhost:6070/ install app