I disovered the hard way today that I need to split a library into two packages; lets call them CoreLib and TestCoreLib. The CoreLib package is a library, the TestCoreLib library is the bundle of utilities and actors needs to setup the test environment required to test the CoreLib library. The added benefit of splitting this into two packages is that apps built with CoreLib can also beneift from use of TestCoreLib as it also suffices as a mocking library.
As TestCoreLib uses some actors from CoreLib, I defined CoreLib as a peerDependency of TestCoreLib.
{
"name": "TestCoreLib",
"version": "1.0.0-rc.1",
"type": "module",
"peerDependencies": {
"CoreLib": "^1.0.0-rc.0"
}
}
Conversely, I defined TestCoreLib as a devDependency of CoreLib as CoreLib of course has the need of passing its tests before publish.
{
"name": "CoreLib",
"version": "1.0.0-rc.1",
"type": "module",
"devDependencies": {
"TestCoreLib": "^1.0.0-rc.0"
}
}
Both release candidate packages have been published to NPM successfully and I have setup a third project DemoApp that uses both CoreLib and TestCoreLib successfully.
{
"name": "DemoApp",
"version": "1.0.0-rc.1",
"type": "module",
"devDependencies": {
"CoreLib": "^1.0.0-rc.0",
"TestCoreLib": "^1.0.0-rc.0"
}
}
The problem is now in the development branch of the CoreLib project. Tests don't complete complete as the following error is thrown:
Uncaught Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find package 'CoreLib' imported from /path/to/CoreLib/node_modules/CoreTestLib/lib/index.js
That tells me that CoreLib is not being picked up by TestCoreLib, even though TestCoreLib is in the node_modules directory of the CoreLib project. The first statement in TestCoreLib is an import from CoreLib, so I assume the error is being thrown as that import is not being resolved even though it should... right?
I always want the development version of CoreLib to be used by TestCoreLib, so I am concerned about adding CoreLib as a devDependency (instead of a peerDependency) of TestCoreLib as I worry that doing such will lock CoreLib into version conflict with its own prior release, but I am honestly confused about what would happen in that context.
The lazy boy moon shot of linking TestCoreLib to CoreLib does not solve the problem either, so I am obviously missing something fundamental that I would really appreciate your help with.
Do you know of any projects that successfully split their packages off into peerDependencies in such a way that you could refer me to?
Is there an elephant in the room sitting top of me and if so could you tell it to get off so that I can resolve this maddening issue and move on? LMAO
Be safe, well, calm, clear, happy fellow humans. Thanks for considerations.
