I have a program written with node js that I want to bundle and distribute as "stand-alone" executable program.
I want to run the program through cmd only with the the executable file name (without using npm run start or node file.js). i.e. my_program arguments.
What is the most recommended way to achieve this?
Thanks.
There are several options you can choose from. I would recommend checking out Pkg.
With Pkg, you can package your node application into a single executable for Windows, Linux or Mac.
Simply install Pkg globally on your machine by running the command:
npm install -g pkg
and then add your point of entry to the package.json file as shown below:
{
"bin": "bin.js" // or whatever your point of entry is
}
Afterwards, from your app directory simply run the command
pkg .
This would build the executables for Windows, Linux and MacOS.
You can execute the executable by running:
Windows: your_exec-win.exe # windows
Linux: chmod u+x your_exec-linux; ./your_exec-linux
Related
I install a node module globally, let's say the grunt module. I install it by:
npm install -g grunt
It's installed in %APPDATA%\npm\node_modules\grunt.
Then I can run it in command line, like grunt --version. How does this happen? I mean, why can I directly use grunt as a command?
BTW, I'm using Windows. And I install NodeJS by .msi installer.
You aren't really running the grunt package as a whole from the command.
The setup for this starts in grunt's package.json. In that, it's specified a bin script that's named the same as the package.
"bin": {
"grunt": "bin/grunt"
},
When you install the package globally, npm adds an executable file for each bin script (there can be multiple per package) to a directory in your system's PATH, allowing a command line to find them when you type the command.
When you run grunt, it's sort of a shortcut to running node bin/grunt from the directory where it's installed, passing along any arguments you provided after it.
I read on the npm documentation that you can't use bin scripts of locally installed packages.
So, how gulp can be launched as bin command when installed locally?
What's making it available when locally installed, I reviewed the gulp package.json and the bin scripts, I don't found any answer.
From NPMJS documentation:
To use this, supply a bin field in your package.json which is a map of command name to local file name. On install, npm will symlink that file into prefix/bin for global installs, or ./node_modules/.bin/ for local installs.
So, your locally installed packages binaries will be executable like this
./bin/node_modules/.bin/the_binary
This is if you want to launch the binary directly. Or, as specified in the scripts part of the documentation:
In addition to the shell's pre-existing PATH, npm run adds node_modules/.bin to the PATH provided to scripts.
Thus, you can simply write a wrapper script like
scripts: {
"build": "the_binary"
}
and call your script like this
npm run build
Bonus
As of npm#2.0.0, you can use custom arguments when executing scripts. The special option -- is used by getopt to delimit the end of the options. npm will pass all the arguments after the -- directly to your script:
npm run test -- --grep="pattern"
You can use lpx https://www.npmjs.com/package/lpx to
run a binary found in the local node_modules/.bin folder
run a binary found in the node_modules/.bin of a workspace root from anywhere in the workspace
lpx does not download any package if the binary is not found locally (ie not like npx)
Example : lpx tsc -b -w will run tsc -b -w with the local typescript package
I managed to run cucumber from CLI with
node ./node_modules/cucumber/bin/cucumber
but I wasn't able to run it simply with
cucumber
Windows tried to run it as executable, so it opened some window about missing file association. Is there a way to solve this? Note that I don't want to add nodejs as .js file association, since I am pretty sure the same code won't work on github when travis tries to run the script.
I installed the package with npm.
"devDependencies": {
...
"cucumber": "^0.8.1",
You have to install cucumber globally, i.e. npm install cucumber -g This way, npm creates a binary / symlink in some standard 'on-path' directory (i.e., where the executables should be put), so you can run it from command line.
In my notebook (Linux), I run
sudo npm install cucumber -g
which creates a symlink
/usr/bin/cucumberjs -> /usr/lib/node_modules/cucumber/bin/cucumber.js
which means I can run it by cucumberjs command. If some dependency has cucumber command hardwired into it (without the js suffix), I'd create another symlink manually.
/usr/bin/cucumber -> /usr/bin/cucumberjs
If you run into the following problems, maybe try using nvm, not to polute your system folders.
Add this to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile.
It will add ./node_modules/.bin to your PATH
export PATH=$HOME/bin:./node_modules/.bin:$PATH
I am new to node.js. I downloaded and install node.js installer from the official site. I have added this installer folder in PATH environment variable and I am able to run programs. But when I try to install some package using npm in node console it shows the error npm should be run outside of the node repl, in your normal shell. I also tried it on a separate console. But it shows command not found though I have added node in the environment variable.
For Windows users, run npm commands from the Command Prompt (cmd.exe), not Node.Js (node.exe). So your "normal shell" is cmd.exe. (I agree this message can be confusing for a Windows, Node newbie.)
By the way, the Node.js Command Prompt is actually just an easy shortcut to cmd.exe.
Below is an example screenshot for installing grunt from cmd.exe:
Do not run the application using node.js icon.
Go to All Programmes->Node.js->Node.js command prompt.
Below is example screen shot.
If you're like me running in a restricted environment without administrative privileges, that means your only way to get node up and running is to grab the executable (node.exe) without using the installer. You also cannot change the path variable which makes it that much more challenging.
Here's what I did (for Windows)
Throw node.exe into its own folder (Downloaded the node.exe stand-alone )
Grab an NPM release zip off of github: https://github.com/npm/npm/releases
Create a folder named: node_modules in the node.exe folder
Extract the NPM zip into the node_modules folder
Make sure the top most folder is named npm (remove any of the versioning on the npm folder name ie: npm-2.12.1 --> npm)
Copy npm.cmd out of the npm/bin folder into the top most folder with node.exe
Open a command prompt to the node.exe directory (shift right-click "Open command window here")
Now you will be able to run your npm installers via:
npm install -g express
Running the installers through npm will now auto install packages where they need to be located (node_modules and the root)
Don't forget you will not be able to set the path variable if you do not have proper permissions. So your best route is to open a command prompt in the node.exe directory (shift right-click "Open command window here")
It's better to use the actual (msi) installer from nodejs.org instead of downloading the node executable only. The installer includes npm and makes it easier to manage your node installation. There is an installer for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.
Also a couple of other tidbits:
Installing modules globally doesn't do what you might expect. The only modules you should install globally (the -g flag in npm) are ones that install commands. So to install Express you would just do npm install express and that will install Express to your current working directory. If you were instead looking for the Express project generator (command), you need to do npm install -g express-generator for Express 4.
You can use node anywhere from your command prompt to execute scripts. For example if you have already written a separate script: node foo.js. Or you can open up the REPL (as you've already found out) by just selecting the node.js (start menu) shortcut or by just typing node in a command prompt.
As mscdex said NPM comes with the nodejs msi installed file. I happened to just install the node js installer (standalone). To separately add NPM I followed following step
Download the latest zip file of NPM from here.
Extract it in the same file as that of node js installer.
If you have added the directory containing to node js installer to PATH env variable then now even npm should be a recognized command.
you just open command prompt,
then enter in c:/>('cd../../')
then npm install -g cordova
It's simple. Press the Windows logo on your keyboard. Then, type node.js command prompt in the search bar and run it.
You must get directory right path of program(node.js in program files).
such as
and use "npm install -g phonegap"
Just open Node.js commmand promt as run as administrator
How do you create a console app that you can run by a name instead of using node and a .js file to start the app?
Instead of...
$ node myapp.js --out ./folder/
Can I...
$ myapp --out ./folder/
You can use the bin option in your package.json file to make your script executable. From the documentation for package.json:
A lot of packages have one or more executable files that they'd like
to install into the PATH. npm makes this pretty easy (in fact, it uses
this feature to install the "npm" executable.)
To use this, supply a bin field in your package.json which is a map of
command name to local file name. On install, npm will symlink that
file into prefix/bin for global installs, or ./node_modules/.bin/ for
local installs.
Click the link and search for bin: https://www.npmjs.org/doc/json.html for more info.