292 lines
8.3 KiB
Groff
292 lines
8.3 KiB
Groff
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.TH "DEVELOPERS" "7" "November 2019" "" ""
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.SH "NAME"
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\fBdevelopers\fR \- Developer Guide
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.SS Description
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.P
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So, you've decided to use npm to develop (and maybe publish/deploy)
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your project\.
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.P
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Fantastic!
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.P
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There are a few things that you need to do above the simple steps
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that your users will do to install your program\.
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.SS About These Documents
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.P
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These are man pages\. If you install npm, you should be able to
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then do \fBman npm\-thing\fP to get the documentation on a particular
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topic, or \fBnpm help thing\fP to see the same information\.
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.SS What is a package
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.P
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A package is:
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.RS 0
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.IP \(bu 2
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a) a folder containing a program described by a package\.json file
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.IP \(bu 2
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b) a gzipped tarball containing (a)
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.IP \(bu 2
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c) a url that resolves to (b)
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.IP \(bu 2
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d) a \fB<name>@<version>\fP that is published on the registry with (c)
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.IP \(bu 2
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e) a \fB<name>@<tag>\fP that points to (d)
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.IP \(bu 2
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f) a \fB<name>\fP that has a "latest" tag satisfying (e)
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.IP \(bu 2
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g) a \fBgit\fP url that, when cloned, results in (a)\.
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.RE
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.P
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Even if you never publish your package, you can still get a lot of
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benefits of using npm if you just want to write a node program (a), and
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perhaps if you also want to be able to easily install it elsewhere
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after packing it up into a tarball (b)\.
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.P
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Git urls can be of the form:
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.P
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.RS 2
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.nf
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git://github\.com/user/project\.git#commit\-ish
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git+ssh://user@hostname:project\.git#commit\-ish
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git+http://user@hostname/project/blah\.git#commit\-ish
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git+https://user@hostname/project/blah\.git#commit\-ish
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.fi
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.RE
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.P
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The \fBcommit\-ish\fP can be any tag, sha, or branch which can be supplied as
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an argument to \fBgit checkout\fP\|\. The default is \fBmaster\fP\|\.
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.SS The package\.json File
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.P
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You need to have a \fBpackage\.json\fP file in the root of your project to do
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much of anything with npm\. That is basically the whole interface\.
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.P
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See npm help \fBpackage\.json\fP for details about what goes in that file\. At the very
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least, you need:
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.RS 0
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.IP \(bu 2
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name:
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This should be a string that identifies your project\. Please do not
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use the name to specify that it runs on node, or is in JavaScript\.
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You can use the "engines" field to explicitly state the versions of
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node (or whatever else) that your program requires, and it's pretty
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well assumed that it's JavaScript\.
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It does not necessarily need to match your github repository name\.
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So, \fBnode\-foo\fP and \fBbar\-js\fP are bad names\. \fBfoo\fP or \fBbar\fP are better\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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version:
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A semver\-compatible version\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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engines:
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Specify the versions of node (or whatever else) that your program
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runs on\. The node API changes a lot, and there may be bugs or new
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functionality that you depend on\. Be explicit\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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author:
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Take some credit\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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scripts:
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If you have a special compilation or installation script, then you
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should put it in the \fBscripts\fP object\. You should definitely have at
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least a basic smoke\-test command as the "scripts\.test" field\.
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See npm help scripts\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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main:
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If you have a single module that serves as the entry point to your
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program (like what the "foo" package gives you at require("foo")),
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then you need to specify that in the "main" field\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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directories:
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This is an object mapping names to folders\. The best ones to include are
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"lib" and "doc", but if you use "man" to specify a folder full of man pages,
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they'll get installed just like these ones\.
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.RE
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.P
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You can use \fBnpm init\fP in the root of your package in order to get you
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started with a pretty basic package\.json file\. See npm help \fBinit\fP for
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more info\.
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.SS Keeping files \fIout\fR of your package
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.P
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Use a \fB\|\.npmignore\fP file to keep stuff out of your package\. If there's
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no \fB\|\.npmignore\fP file, but there \fIis\fR a \fB\|\.gitignore\fP file, then npm will
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ignore the stuff matched by the \fB\|\.gitignore\fP file\. If you \fIwant\fR to
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include something that is excluded by your \fB\|\.gitignore\fP file, you can
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create an empty \fB\|\.npmignore\fP file to override it\. Like \fBgit\fP, \fBnpm\fP looks
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for \fB\|\.npmignore\fP and \fB\|\.gitignore\fP files in all subdirectories of your
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package, not only the root directory\.
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.P
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\fB\|\.npmignore\fP files follow the same pattern rules \fIhttps://git\-scm\.com/book/en/v2/Git\-Basics\-Recording\-Changes\-to\-the\-Repository#Ignoring\-Files\fR
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as \fB\|\.gitignore\fP files:
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.RS 0
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.IP \(bu 2
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Blank lines or lines starting with \fB#\fP are ignored\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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Standard glob patterns work\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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You can end patterns with a forward slash \fB/\fP to specify a directory\.
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.IP \(bu 2
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You can negate a pattern by starting it with an exclamation point \fB!\fP\|\.
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.RE
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.P
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By default, the following paths and files are ignored, so there's no
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need to add them to \fB\|\.npmignore\fP explicitly:
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.RS 0
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\.*\.swp\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\._*\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\.DS_Store\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\.git\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\.hg\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\.npmrc\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\.lock\-wscript\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\.svn\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fB\|\.wafpickle\-*\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fBconfig\.gypi\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fBCVS\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fBnpm\-debug\.log\fP
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.RE
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.P
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Additionally, everything in \fBnode_modules\fP is ignored, except for
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bundled dependencies\. npm automatically handles this for you, so don't
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bother adding \fBnode_modules\fP to \fB\|\.npmignore\fP\|\.
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.P
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The following paths and files are never ignored, so adding them to
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\fB\|\.npmignore\fP is pointless:
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.RS 0
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fBpackage\.json\fP
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fBREADME\fP (and its variants)
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fBCHANGELOG\fP (and its variants)
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.IP \(bu 2
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\fBLICENSE\fP / \fBLICENCE\fP
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.RE
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.P
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If, given the structure of your project, you find \fB\|\.npmignore\fP to be a
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maintenance headache, you might instead try populating the \fBfiles\fP
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property of \fBpackage\.json\fP, which is an array of file or directory names
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that should be included in your package\. Sometimes a whitelist is easier
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to manage than a blacklist\.
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.SS Testing whether your \fB\|\.npmignore\fP or \fBfiles\fP config works
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.P
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If you want to double check that your package will include only the files
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you intend it to when published, you can run the \fBnpm pack\fP command locally
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which will generate a tarball in the working directory, the same way it
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does for publishing\.
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.SS Link Packages
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.P
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\fBnpm link\fP is designed to install a development package and see the
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changes in real time without having to keep re\-installing it\. (You do
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need to either re\-link or \fBnpm rebuild \-g\fP to update compiled packages,
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of course\.)
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.P
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More info at npm help \fBlink\fP\|\.
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.SS Before Publishing: Make Sure Your Package Installs and Works
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.P
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\fBThis is important\.\fR
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.P
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If you can not install it locally, you'll have
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problems trying to publish it\. Or, worse yet, you'll be able to
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publish it, but you'll be publishing a broken or pointless package\.
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So don't do that\.
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.P
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In the root of your package, do this:
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.P
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.RS 2
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.nf
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npm install \. \-g
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.fi
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.RE
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.P
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That'll show you that it's working\. If you'd rather just create a symlink
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package that points to your working directory, then do this:
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.P
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.RS 2
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.nf
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npm link
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.fi
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.RE
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.P
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Use \fBnpm ls \-g\fP to see if it's there\.
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.P
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To test a local install, go into some other folder, and then do:
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.P
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.RS 2
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.nf
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cd \.\./some\-other\-folder
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npm install \.\./my\-package
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.fi
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.RE
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.P
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to install it locally into the node_modules folder in that other place\.
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.P
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Then go into the node\-repl, and try using require("my\-thing") to
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bring in your module's main module\.
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.SS Create a User Account
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.P
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Create a user with the adduser command\. It works like this:
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.P
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.RS 2
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.nf
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npm adduser
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.fi
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.RE
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.P
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and then follow the prompts\.
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.P
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This is documented better in npm help adduser\.
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.SS Publish your package
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.P
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This part's easy\. In the root of your folder, do this:
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.P
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.RS 2
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.nf
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npm publish
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.fi
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.RE
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.P
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You can give publish a url to a tarball, or a filename of a tarball,
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or a path to a folder\.
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.P
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Note that pretty much \fBeverything in that folder will be exposed\fR
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by default\. So, if you have secret stuff in there, use a
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\fB\|\.npmignore\fP file to list out the globs to ignore, or publish
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from a fresh checkout\.
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.SS Brag about it
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.P
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Send emails, write blogs, blab in IRC\.
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.P
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Tell the world how easy it is to install your program!
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.SS See also
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.RS 0
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.IP \(bu 2
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npm help npm
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.IP \(bu 2
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npm help init
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.IP \(bu 2
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npm help package\.json
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.IP \(bu 2
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npm help scripts
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.IP \(bu 2
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npm help publish
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.IP \(bu 2
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npm help adduser
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.IP \(bu 2
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npm help registry
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.RE
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