libyear

A simple measure of software dependency freshness

0.4.2
Source
npm

Version published: 5 years ago

Maintainers: 1

Created: 5 years ago

Source

`libyear` ·

A Node.js implementation of libyear.

A simple measure of software dependency freshness. It is a single number telling you how up-to-date your dependencies are.

Metrics

drift representing "dependency drift"; the time between the release of the currently used and latest (stable) available versions of a dependency. Measured in "libyears".
pulse representing "pulse check", an indication of a dependency's activity; the time since the release of the latest available version of a dependency (including pre-release). Measured in "libyears".
releases the number of stable releases between the currently used and latest (stable) available versions of a dependency.

All metrics are calculated against dependencies both collectively and individually.

Why

Why Does libyear Matter

Dependency drift fitness function is a technique to introduce a specific evolutionary architecture fitness function to track dependencies over time, giving an indication of the possible work needed and whether a potential issue is getting better or worse.

Newer versions of dependencies may include bug fixes and security vulnerability fixes. These fixes are often released in "patch" versions which are backwards-compatible.

Newer versions of dependencies may include performance improvements and new features/capabilities. These enhancements are often released in "minor" versions which are backwards-compatible.

The fixes and features released by dependency authors often filter down to the consumer packages.

A practice of regular dependency maintenance begets smaller changes and easier upgrades. Continual evolution of the code avoids rewrites. When using the most recent versions of a dependency there is better alignment with documentation.

It is difficult to find volunteers to maintain legacy code. Modern stacks attract developers.

Why `libyear`

libyear offers a package-manager-agnostic tool to measure dependency freshness for Node.js environments.

On top of the most commonly referenced "dependency drift" fitness function, libyear tracks additional metrics like "pulse" and "releases". "drift" is useful as a guideline to determine when dependencies should be updated. "pulse" is useful for identifying dependencies that may no longer be maintained. "releases" is an alternate measure of "drift" based on discrete versions rather than time.

Each metric can be configured with a threshold. If configured, a breach of the threshold will exit the process with a failure code. This may be used in CI as a quality gate.

If dependencies are already up-to-date, libyear tracks upcoming versions of dependencies, providing timely notice to prepare for stable releases.

Usage

`npm`

npx libyear

`yarn@1` (`yarn classic`)

yarn add --dev libyear

package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "libyear": "libyear"
  }
}

yarn libyear

`yarn@2` (`yarn berry`)

yarn dlx libyear