Mix "linked" and regular dependencies

[phtrivier]

I have a multi-project setup (not unlike the one described in README.md.)

root
    Gruntfile.js (with the configuration of grunt-link)
    project1
       package.json
    project2
       package.json
    main
       package.json (depends on project1 and project2)

I want the "best of both worlds"

• being able to work with local versions of my projects while i'm developing a feature (publishing them everytime I change a line is not an option)
• at some point, publish specific versions of project1 (in my case, because unrelated modules will
  also need to depend on it.)

How would I approach that ? Here is what I've tried.

Install published dependencies

• publish project1 on a private repository (version 0.0.1)
• locally, project1 is at version 0.0.1
• locally, main depends on version 0.0.1 of project1 and has a linkDependencies to 'project1'

After 'cd main ; npm install' :

• main/node_modules/project1 contains the content of the published version
• the "local" version of "project1" is completely ignored.

Link locally to the current local version

• publish project1 on a private repository (version 0.0.1)
• locally, project1 is at version 0.0.1
• locally, main depends on version 0.0.1 of project1 and has a linkDependencies to 'project1'

After grunt link :

• main/node_modules/project1 contains the content of the "published" version
• main/node_modules/project1/project1 is a symlink to the installed version in lib/modules
  (I'm not sure whyà

main is then using the "published" version ; the 'local' version is ignored.
This is probably what makes the most sense.

Depending on "^0.0.1" (anything later than... )

Now, suppose I want to modify something in project1, but I don't wan't to
have to publish it all the times.

I could remove the "regular" dependency in main/package.json, and use grunt link ;
it is a bit cumbersome, and I'm probably going to commit a version of main/package.json
that can not be installed anywhere.

On good faith, I tried specifying "^0.0.1" as a version (basically, it's what I want,
except that my local folder should serve as "some kind of a repository").

• publish project1 on a private repository (version 0.0.1)
• locally, project1 is at version 0.0.2
• locally, main depends on version ^0.0.1 of project1 and has a linkDependencies to 'project1'

After grunt link, my 'local' version of project1 is still ignored.

Would it make sense to patch grunt-link in my case to support this ?

Depending on a local "0.0.2"

I tried bumping the version of my "local" package ; so now :

• project1/package.json has version 0.0.2
• main/package.json has standard dependency on 0.0.2, and linkDependencies to 'project1'

Here, grunt link fails because 0.0.2 is not available.

So, is there a way to support my use case ?

Thanks