rollup-plugin-node-externals

rollup-plugin-node-externals

A Rollup plugin that automatically declares NodeJS built-in modules and npm dependencies as 'external'.

Useful when building a NodeJS or an Electron app and you don't want to bundle npm modules with your own code but rather require() them at runtime.

Why?

Because I was getting tired of writing:

external: [
    'path', 'fs', 'fs-jetpack', 'electron-settings' /* and many more */
]

in my rollup.config.js file each time I begin working on an Electron app. :)

Install

npm install --save-dev rollup-plugin-node-externals

Usage

import externals from 'rollup-plugin-node-externals'

export default {
  input: 'src/renderer/index.ts',
  output: {
    file: 'dist/renderer/bundle.js',
    format: 'cjs'
  },
  plugins: [
    externals({
        deps: true,     // include pkg.dependencies (default: true)
        devDeps: true,  // include pkg.devDependencies (default: true)
        peerDeps: true, // include pkg.peerDependencies (default: true)
        optDeps: true,  // include pkg.optionalDependencies (default: true)
        except: []      // exceptions (default: []) -- see below
    })
  ],
  external: [          // Rollup's `external` option has precedence -- see below
    'electron'
  ]
}

Options

By default, the plugin will mark Node built-in modules and all your dependencies as external.

• Node built-in modules (eg, path, fs, etc.) are always external. The list of built-ins is obtained via the builtin-modules package, by Sindre Sorhus.
• Set the deps, devDeps, peerDeps and/or optDeps options to false to prevent the corresponding dependencies in your package.json file from being marked as external, therefore letting Rollup bundle them with your code, or...
• Use the except option to remove certain dependencies from the list of externals. except can be a string, a regex, or an array of those, for example:

externals({
    deps: true,             // Mark all dependencies as external...
    except: [
        'electron-reload',  // ... except `electron-reload`
        /^vuex?/            // and the VueJS family
    ]
})

• Rollup's external option is always honored, no matter what:

plugins: [
    externals({
        deps: false         // Keep all dependencies in the bundle
    })
],
external: [
    'electron'              // But `electron` stays external
]

Licence

MIT

Similar packages

Other packages similar to rollup-plugin-node-externals

rollup-plugin-peer-deps-external

The rollup-plugin-peer-deps-external package is similar in that it also helps manage external dependencies. It specifically focuses on excluding peer dependencies from the bundle, which is useful for library authors who want to ensure that peer dependencies are not bundled. Unlike rollup-plugin-node-externals, it does not automatically exclude built-in Node.js modules.

rollup-plugin-auto-external

rollup-plugin-auto-external is another package that automatically marks dependencies as external based on the package.json file. It is similar to rollup-plugin-node-externals in that it helps manage external dependencies, but it does not specifically target Node.js built-in modules. It is more focused on automating the process of marking dependencies as external based on the package's dependencies and peerDependencies fields.