start-script

Start Script

This is a simple helper utility that allows you to auto-detect the startup script that an app expects to be run with (e.g. npm start, node server.js).

Pre-requisites

• Node.js v6.9.0+ (which is the current LTS release, and you should be using anyways!)

Getting Started

In order to install the start-script module, simply run the following command within your app's directory:

npm install --save start-script

From within your app code, import the start-script module, and execute the returned function in order to retrieve the start script (e.g. app.js) for the specified application directory (defaults to process.cwd()):

const startScript = require("start-script")();
 
// Fork a new Node.js process using the detected script...

API Reference

The start-script module exports a single function, which has the following signature/behavior:

startScript(appDirectory: string = process.cwd()): string

When called, the following heuristic will attempt to auto-detect the specific app's startup script:

1. Does the app have a package.json file, with a scripts.start member? If so, return the *.js file name that is specified.

2. Does the app have one of the following scripts (in order)? If so, return that: server.js, app.js, index.js.

Otherwise, it will return null, which indicates that a start script couldn't be auto-detected.