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I am building an npm module that will generate a specific project template for certain software projects. As such, when a developer installs my npm module and runs it, I would like the program to create files and folders in a certain way.

One such file I would like to include in the project template is a .gitignore file because the software project is going to assume it will be tracked via git. However, when I call "npm install" on my module, npm renames all my .gitignore files to .npmignore files. How can I ensure that my .gitignore files are not tampered with by npm when I distribute my module?

Ryan Jarvis
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4 Answers4

4

Currently npm doesn't allow .gitignore files to be included as part of an npm package and will instead rename it to .npmignore.

A common workaround is to rename the .gitignore to gitignore before publishing. Then as part of an init script, rename the gitignore file to .gitignore. This approach is used in Create React App

Here's how to do it in Node, code from Create React App init script

  const gitignoreExists = fs.existsSync(path.join(appPath, '.gitignore'));
  if (gitignoreExists) {
    // Append if there's already a `.gitignore` file there
    const data = fs.readFileSync(path.join(appPath, 'gitignore'));
    fs.appendFileSync(path.join(appPath, '.gitignore'), data);
    fs.unlinkSync(path.join(appPath, 'gitignore'));
  } else {
    // Rename gitignore after the fact to prevent npm from renaming it to .npmignore
    // See: https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1862
    fs.moveSync(
      path.join(appPath, 'gitignore'),
      path.join(appPath, '.gitignore'),
      []
    );
  }
Dan Barclay
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2

https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1862

Looks like this is a known issue. The answer at the bottom seems like the recommended approach. In case the issue or link ever gets destroyed:

For us, I think a better solution is going to be clear documentation that if authors wish to use .gitignore in their generators, they will need to name their files .##gitignore##, which will be a value gitignore set to the same string gitignore.

In this way, the file that gets published as a template file to npm is called .##gitignore## and won't get caught by npm, but then later it gets replaced with the string to be .gitignore.

Community
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Max Paymar
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1

You can see multiple commits dealing with npm issue 1862:

  • this project adds a rename.json:

    lib/init-template/rename.json
{
    ".npmignore": ".gitignore",
}

  • this one renames the .gitignore:

    templates/default/.gitignore → templates/default/{%=gitignore%}

index.js
@@ -114,6 +114,10 @@ generator._pkgData = function (pkg) {
    + // npm will rename .gitignore to .npmignore:
    + // [ref](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1862)
    + pkg.gitignore = '.gitignore';
VonC
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-1

Edit: even though this answer causes .gitignore to be included in the published package (proven by unpkg), upon running npm install the .gitignore file is simply removed! So even getting NPM to include the file is not enough.

Another solution (simpler imo):

Include both .gitignore and .npmignore in the repo. Add the following to your .npmignore file:

!.gitignore
!.npmignore

Now that .npmignore will already exist in the published package, NPM won't rename .gitignore.

derpedy-doo
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