bin-links

What is bin-links?

The bin-links npm package is a module that is responsible for linking binary files and commands for npm packages. It handles the creation of symlinks for executable files to the .bin directory within the node_modules folder or the global bin directory when a package is installed. This allows users to execute the binaries provided by the installed packages directly from the command line.

What are bin-links's main functionalities?

Linking Binaries

This feature allows the bin-links package to create symlinks for the binaries specified in the package.json file of a node module. The code sample demonstrates how to use bin-links to link binaries for a local package installation.

const binLinks = require('bin-links');

binLinks({
  path: '/path/to/package',
  pkg: { bin: { 'my-binary': './cli.js' } },
  global: false,
  force: true
}).then(() => {
  console.log('Binaries linked successfully.');
}).catch((err) => {
  console.error('Error linking binaries:', err);
});

Linking Global Binaries

This feature is similar to the previous one but is used for linking binaries globally. When the 'global' option is set to true, the binaries are linked in the global bin directory, making them accessible from anywhere in the system.

const binLinks = require('bin-links');

binLinks({
  path: '/path/to/package',
  pkg: { bin: { 'my-binary': './cli.js' } },
  global: true,
  force: true
}).then(() => {
  console.log('Global binaries linked successfully.');
}).catch((err) => {
  console.error('Error linking global binaries:', err);
});

Other packages similar to bin-links

cmd-shim

The cmd-shim package is similar to bin-links in that it creates shim scripts for node modules to be used as command-line tools. Unlike bin-links, cmd-shim is focused on creating shims compatible with Windows as well as Unix systems.

npm-link

npm-link is a package that provides functionality to symlink a package folder during development. While it serves a different purpose from bin-links, which links binaries, npm-link is used to link the entire package for development purposes.

README

bin-links

bin-links is a standalone library that links binaries and man pages for JavaScript packages

Install

$ npm install bin-links

Table of Contents

• Example
• Features
• Contributing
• API
  • binLinks
  • binLinks.getPaths()
  • binLinks.checkBins()

Example

const binLinks = require('bin-links')
const readPackageJson = require('read-package-json-fast')
binLinks({
  path: '/path/to/node_modules/some-package',
  pkg: readPackageJson('/path/to/node_modules/some-package/package.json'),

  // true if it's a global install, false for local.  default: false
  global: true,

  // true if it's the top level package being installed, false otherwise
  top: true,

  // true if you'd like to recklessly overwrite files.
  force: true,
})

Features

• Links bin files listed under the bin property of pkg to the node_modules/.bin directory of the installing environment. (Or ${prefix}/bin for top level global packages on unix, and ${prefix} for top level global packages on Windows.)
• Links man files listed under the man property of pkg to the share/man directory. (This is only done for top-level global packages on Unix systems.)

Contributing

The npm team enthusiastically welcomes contributions and project participation! There's a bunch of things you can do if you want to contribute! The Contributor Guide has all the information you need for everything from reporting bugs to contributing entire new features. Please don't hesitate to jump in if you'd like to, or even ask us questions if something isn't clear.

API

> binLinks({path, pkg, force, global, top})

Returns a Promise that resolves when the requisite things have been linked.

> binLinks.getPaths({path, pkg, global, top })

Returns an array of all the paths of links and shims that might be created (assuming that they exist!) for the package at the specified path.

Does not touch the filesystem.

> binLinks.checkBins({path, pkg, global, top, force })

Checks if there are any conflicting bins which will prevent the linking of bins for the given package. Returns a Promise that resolves with no value if the way is clear, and rejects if there's something in the way.

Always returns successfully if global or top are false, or if force is true, or if the pkg object does not contain any bins to link.

Note that changes to the file system may still cause the binLinks method to fail even if this method succeeds. Does not check for conflicting man links.

Reads from the filesystem but does not make any changes.

Example

binLinks({path, pkg, force, global, top}).then(() => console.log('bins linked!'))

Changelog

5.0.0 (2024-09-25)

⚠️ BREAKING CHANGES

• bin-links now supports node ^18.17.0 || >=20.5.0

Features

• 9648a7d #121 ignore EACCES on linking (@antongolub)

Bug Fixes

• 013be50 #139 align to npm 10 node engine range (@reggi)

Dependencies

• a08d09b #139 write-file-atomic@6.0.0
• 7d90298 #139 read-cmd-shim@5.0.0
• 0c915a3 #139 proc-log@5.0.0
• 502417c #139 npm-normalize-package-bin@4.0.0
• 722452a #139 cmd-shim@7.0.0
• af7e347 #121 add proc-log

Chores

• 463c32f #139 run template-oss-apply (@reggi)
• ba52600 #133 bump @npmcli/eslint-config from 4.0.5 to 5.0.0 (@dependabot[bot])
• fdf22ae #134 postinstall for dependabot template-oss PR (@hashtagchris)
• d949f7d #134 bump @npmcli/template-oss from 4.23.1 to 4.23.3 (@dependabot[bot])