NPM: module installation for a command line node tool?

Question

I have a command line tool written in node. I'd like to:

Have the app be able to load its dependencies and work. Currently, after npm install -g <somemodule> that module is still not available. Things didn't used to work this way.
Not have to run npm link on every folder, as I have read in the NPM 1.0 docs. The above docs also talks about $PATH, which seems unrelated to the topic as I care about node modules, not binaries.

How can/should a node command line tool handle its dependencies so that the command line tool can run from any directory?

Salman · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-13 10:25:33Z

3

You can add following in the main file of your node.js app, assuming your file name is node-binary.js.

#! /usr/bin/env node

// your app code
console.log('TEST node binary');

And, in package.json file you need to specify which is the entry point of your app

...
"preferGlobal": "true",
"bin": {
    "node-binary": "node-binary.js"
},
...

and run the command npm link in the app directory. You should now be able to use node-binary command from any directory.

Hope that helps... :)

answered Aug 13, 2013 at 10:25

Salman

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3 Comments

Salman Over a year ago

Another thing that I interpreted from your question is you want to run the module from any directory, irrespective of where its dependencies are installed. it is correct?

chovy Over a year ago

how do i install my module globally from my local repo so I can test it works?

Salman Over a year ago

You could npm pack and then do an npm i -g pack.tgz.

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