How to shrinkwrap symlink node module created with 'npm link'?

Question

I work on two repositories at once. One depends on the other (listed in package.json dependencies).

So I am using npm link ..\theOne in other to work on both modules at once. As a result I can test the modification on one module on the other. Problem is when doing npm shrinkwrap on this other module: it will generate errors like:

npm ERR! extraneous C:\other\node_modules\theOne\node_modules\{xxxx}

{xxxx} is a dev dependencies that appears as extraneous for npm.

Anyone has succeded to shrinkwrap a module with symlink to another modules?

NB:

npm 3.10.3
node 6.3.0

for me shrinkwrap itself did work but then any subsequent attempt to `npm link theOne && npm install` fails by saying "Not found : theOne" — Ustaman Sangat, Sep 13 '16 at 14:28
did you try `npm link ../theOne` ? I mean, using a relative path? — Damien Leroux, Sep 13 '16 at 16:30
Actually my issue was due to typescript. After fixing that it works fine and yes npm shrinkwrap worked fine too. Maybe share your code in plunker? — Ustaman Sangat, Sep 19 '16 at 20:56

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

I post a solution here. It doesn't explain how to shrinkwrap symlinks but I found a better workaround to develop multiple modules at once with dependencies between those modules.

The solution is to use an alternative to npm link to handle the modules relations during development: Instead of having a folder A linked to another folder B (aka symlink), the solution is to have the modified files from B copied in folder A. This solution is very powerful because it avoid getting node module shrinkwrapping error due to unwanted modules from B. How to do it:

On Mac

You can use wml: Wml listens to changes in some folder (using Watchman) and copies changed files into another folder. I never use it but my teammate using Mac use it every day.

On Window

I use DSynchronize (after clicking this link, scroll down to see the executable). DSynchronize is a stand-alone utility that let you periodically synchronize two or more folders. You can exclude from copying some folders (like node_modules) or include others (like lib). The configuration file DSynchronize.ini can be edited with a text editor. For example:

Source0000=-C:\DEV\workspace\js-common
Destination0000=-C:\DEV\workspace\connexme\node_modules\js-common
Filter0000=
VolumeSerialOri0000=407325536
VolumeSerialDest0000=407325536
ExcludeFilter0000=0
NoSubDirectory0000=0
NoFilterDirectory0000=1
DateBeforeToExcludeFiles0000=00:00:00
FilterFolder0000=\.git|\.vscode|\node_modules

This configuration will copy file from C:\DEV\workspace\js-common to C:\DEV\workspace\connexme\node_modules\js-common. This way, when I npm shrinkwrap my project connexme, I'll doesn't get extraneous bad folder from js-common folder.

Just a three last things about editing DSynchronize.ini for DSynchronize configuration:

Using it or closing it will save the configuration in DSynchronize.ini so be careful when editing DSynchronize.iniand the closing it. It will override DSynchronize.ini.
Make sure each variables is unique. Example: Source0000, Source0001...
Make sure to have all the variables present for each Source/Destinations (see example above).

How to shrinkwrap symlink node module created with 'npm link'?

1 Answers1

On Mac

On Window