6

How can I write my own terminal commands for an NPM project, which would replace the gulp command without relying on npm run?

My project contains the following Gulp and http-server custom commands...

## COMMANDS I CURRENTLY HAVE
|        Command        |            Task             |
|-----------------------|-----------------------------|
|      npm run boom     | "Builds then watches files" |
| npm run boom -- build |  "Builds the assets files"  |
|    npm run launch     |   "Starts a local server"   |

This is because of the scripts in its package.json file...

/// package.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "boom": "gulp",
    "launch": "http-server -o"
  },
    "devDependencies": {
      "gulp": "^3.9.0",
      "gulp-sass": "^2.1.0",
      "http-server": "^0.8.5"
    }
}

Here is what I would actually like my custom commands to be...

## COMMANDS I WANT TO HAVE
|   Command   |            Task             |
|-------------|-----------------------------|
|    boom     | "Builds then watches files" |
| boom build  |  "Builds the assets files"  |
| boom launch |   "Starts a local server"   |

EDIT

"Can I add a debug script to NPM?" is not the same as what I am asking. I've already defined scripts in my package.json file, which is how I ended up with my current commands. What I want is to write my own project commands/scripts that do the same things as what I have listed, without having to type npm run.

Example

  • I Currently Have
    • npm run boom command
  • What Does it Do?
    • runs gulp command
  • What Command Do I Want Available in the Project Instead, That Does the Same Thing?
    • boom command
Community
  • 1
  • 1
SuitAndCape
  • 93
  • 7
  • 1
    I'm not sure about doing this in npm, but depending on your OS, you can add custom commands to run via command prompt/terminal. – Gregor Menih Jan 22 '16 at 23:01
  • @ItsGreg – I could make alias for it, which would apply to my command prompt, but I want these commands to work locally for anyone who decides to use the project. – SuitAndCape Jan 22 '16 at 23:26
  • There is no "simple" way to do it. You will have to create a npm package and put your commands under it, then install it as any other package. [This link give details](http://javascriptplayground.com/blog/2015/03/node-command-line-tool/) on the approach. – Claudio Holanda Jan 23 '16 at 03:23
  • other example https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2015/11/scripting-with-node/ – rick Apr 20 '16 at 19:07

2 Answers2

3

I usually do this by writing a small CLI using commander then adding a bin entry into the package.json pointing to the CLI file.

    {
      ...
      "author": "",
      "license": "ISC",
      "bin":{
        "boom": "boom-cli.js"
      ...
    }

Then running either npm install -g or npm link -g from the root of the project.

If I recall correctly, npm link -g creates a symlink between your package and wherever your globally installed npm packages are kept which is preferable for me since I like to change things frequently.

This is a good resource on the topic.

leesio
  • 731
  • 3
  • 13
0

Running npm install only did not help me. Need to run npm link which helped me run the CLI command.

Where npm link creates alias like below in the output: Example : $LOCAL_DIR\cli-command -> $LOCAL_DIR\npm\node_modules\$PROJECT\dist\index.js ...

sanjaya Kumar panigrahy
  • 121
  • 8