Install local
Installs npm/yarn packages locally without symlink, also in npm 5. Exactly the same as your production installation, no compromises.Getting started
Install withnpm install -g install-local
or for occasional use, without installation
$ npx install-local
You can use install-local from command line or programmatically.
Command line:
Usage:
$ install-local # 1
$ install-local [options] <directory>[ <directory>] # 2
$ install-local --target-siblings # 3
Installs a package from the filesystem into the current directory.
Options:
-h, --help
: Output this help-S, --save
: Saved packages will appear in your package.json under "localDependencies"-T, --target-siblings
: Instead of installing into this package, this package gets installed into sibling packages
Examples:
install-local
install-local ..
install-local --save ../sibling ../sibling2
install-local --help
See Programmatically to see how use
install-local
from node.Why?
Why installing packages locally? There are a number of use cases.- You want to test if the installation of your package results in expected behavior (test your .npmignore file, etc)
- You want to install a package locally in a lernajs-style monorepo
- You just want to test a fork of a dependency, after building it locally.
What's wrong with npm-link?
Well... nothing is wrong with npm link. It's just not covering all use cases.For example, if your using typescript and you
npm link
a dependency from a parent directory, you might end up with infinite ts source files, resulting in an out-of-memory error:FATAL ERROR: CALL_AND_RETRY_LAST Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory
An other reason is with
npm link
your not testing if your package actually installs correctly. You might have files in there that will not be there after installation.Can't i use npm i file:
?
You could use npm install file:..
versions of npm prior to version 5. It installed the package locally. Since version 5, the functionality changed to npm link
instead. More info here: https://github.com/npm/npm/pull/15900How to guarantee a production-like install
To guarantee the production-like installation of your dependency,install-local
uses npm pack
and npm install <tarball file>
under the hood. This is as close as production-like as it gets.Programmatically
Typings are included for all your TypeScript programmers out thereconst { cli, execute, Options, progress, LocalInstaller} = require('install-local');
Use the CLI programmatically
Execute the cli functions with thecli
function. It returns a promise:cli(['node', 'install-local', '--save', '../sibling-dependency', '../sibling-dependency2'])
.then(() => console.log('done'))
.catch(err => console.error('err'));
Or a slightly cleaner api:
execute({
validate: () => true,
dependencies: ['../sibling-dependency', '../sibling-dependency2'],
save: true,
targetSiblings: false
})
Install dependencies locally
Use theLocalInstaller
to install local dependencies into multiple directories.For example:
const localInstaller = new LocalInstaller({
/*1*/ '.': ['../sibling1', '../sibling2'],
/*2*/ '../dependant': ['.']
});
progress(localInstaller);
localInstaller.install()
.then(() => console.log('done'))
.catch(err => console.error(err));
- This will install packages located in the directories "sibling1" and "sibling2" next to the current working directory into the package located in the current working directory (
'.'
) - This will install the package located in the current working directory (
'.'
) into the package located in
Construct the
LocalInstall
by using an object. The properties of this object are the relative package locations to install into. The array values are the packages to be installed. Use the install()
method to install, returns a promise.If you want the progress reporting like the CLI has: use
progress(localInstaller)
; Passing npm env variables
In some cases it might be useful to control the env variables for npm. For example when you want npm to rebuild native node modules against Electron headers. You can do it by passingoptions
to LocalInstaller
's constructor.const localInstaller = new LocalInstaller(
{ '.': ['../sibling'] },
{ npmEnv: { envVar: 'envValue' } }
);
Because the value provided for
npmEnv
will override the environment of the npm execution, you may want to extend the existing environment so that required values such as PATH
are preserved:const localInstaller = new LocalInstaller(
{ '.': ['../sibling'] },
{ npmEnv: Object.assign({}, process.env, { envVar: 'envValue' }) }
);