symlink

symlink

• Have lots of personal node modules?
• npm link them all together?
• find the process of relinking everything after os install tedious?

If you answered YES to all the above, then this module is for you. Otherwise, it is most certainly not.

Usage

Install, then run in the directory containing all your repos that youd like to link together (will take all folders that contain a package.json)

npm install -g symlink
symlink -r repoDir

WHAT DOES IT DO:

• reads the package.json of each module and finds their dependencies ++ devDependencies
• figures out which deps were given
• figures out which deps are external
• orders the modules so that linking can be in a safe order without having to query npmjs.org

Once everything has been ordered, a bunch of child processes are executed in series for each module from the order of least inclusion;

• npm link ((globals ∩ foreignDeps) ∪ (internalDeps))
• npm install (foreignDeps ∖ globals)
• npm link

I.e. link in all local global and internal dependencies, install the rest, then link the module itself so the modules with more inclusions can safely link the module in.

Globally linked modules

If you'd like to link, say, tap to all modules that have it specified in the package.json (instead of having it be installed at every module where it's listed as a foreign dependency) specify a -g tap flag. This flag can be specified many times for as many modules you'd like to link in.

Try before you buy

After cloning a bunch of node git repos, you can see how it would link these together first by running symlink with the dry-run -d flag.

EXAMPLE BECAUSE WTF

When I reinstall my linux, I git clone all my repos and let symlink figure out a safe order of commands and perform the following list of actions sequentially via child_process;

# NB: for readability the full paths have been shortened
kjttks@clux ~/repos $ symlink -r . -g tap -d
[
 "cd ./blog && npm install marked ecstatic promzard async browserify ejs",
 "cd ./blog && npm link",
 "cd ./confortable && npm link tap",
 "cd ./confortable && npm link",
 "cd ./decay && npm link tap",
 "cd ./decay && npm link",
 "cd ./fsx && npm link",
 "cd ./irc-stream && npm link tap",
 "cd ./irc-stream && npm install irc",
 "cd ./irc-stream && npm link",
 "cd ./operators && npm link tap",
 "cd ./operators && npm link",
 "cd ./autonomy && npm link tap operators",
 "cd ./autonomy && npm link",
 "cd ./combustion && npm link tap confortable fsx autonomy operators",
 "cd ./combustion && npm install optimist",
 "cd ./combustion && npm link",
 "cd ./sdp-transform && npm link tap",
 "cd ./sdp-transform && npm link",
 "cd ./splitter && npm link tap",
 "cd ./splitter && npm link",
 "cd ./statesoftheworld && npm link tap",
 "cd ./statesoftheworld && npm link",
 "cd ./subset && npm link tap",
 "cd ./subset && npm link",
 "cd ./curvefever-stats && npm link tap subset confortable",
 "cd ./curvefever-stats && npm install request cheerio async",
 "cd ./curvefever-stats && npm link",
 "cd ./interlude && npm link tap autonomy subset operators",
 "cd ./interlude && npm link",
 "cd ./symlink && npm link tap interlude",
 "cd ./symlink && npm install async optimist",
 "cd ./symlink && npm link",
 "cd ./testling-html-example && npm link",
 "cd ./testling-server-example && npm install tape",
 "cd ./testling-server-example && npm link",
 "cd ./topiary && npm link",
 "cd ./tournament && npm link tap interlude",
 "cd ./tournament && npm link",
 "cd ./tournament-components && npm link tournament",
 "cd ./tournament-components && npm install tape",
 "cd ./tournament-components && npm link",
 "cd ./trials && npm link tap",
 "cd ./trials && npm link",
 "cd ./dye && npm link tap trials subset",
 "cd ./dye && npm link",
 "cd ./tub && npm link tap splitter",
 "cd ./tub && npm install dev-null",
 "cd ./tub && npm link",
 "cd ./typr && npm link tap",
 "cd ./typr && npm link",
 "cd ./logule && npm link tap dye autonomy subset confortable typr",
 "cd ./logule && npm link",
 "cd ./gu && npm link tap logule",
 "cd ./gu && npm install hot-reload",
 "cd ./gu && npm link",
 "cd ./cleverbot-irc && npm link dye gu irc-stream confortable",
 "cd ./cleverbot-irc && npm install levenshtein cleverbot-node suncalc irc-colors",
 "cd ./cleverbot-irc && npm link",
 "cd ./curvefever-bot && npm link tap curvefever-stats gu confortable",
 "cd ./curvefever-bot && npm link",
 "cd ./meshrtc && npm link logule",
 "cd ./meshrtc && npm install shoe emit-stream bean bonzo qwery domready ecstatic mux-demux pause-stream dnode browserify",
 "cd ./meshrtc && npm link",
 "cd ./wolfram-alpha && npm link tap",
 "cd ./wolfram-alpha && npm install request libxmljs",
 "cd ./wolfram-alpha && npm link",
 "cd ./wolfram-irc && npm link gu irc-stream confortable wolfram-alpha",
 "cd ./wolfram-irc && npm link",
 "cd ./wrappers && npm link tap",
 "cd ./wrappers && npm link"
]

Without the -d flag, these commands would be executed in this order. You can see the most independent modules gets their missing dependencies installed first, then gets npm linked so the more requiring modules can npm link in these.

If you have a local/chowned install of node (such that creating links to globally installed modules can be done sans-sudo) then symlink can run sudo free too.

License

MIT-Licensed. See LICENSE file for details.