Creating and publishing cli apps with npm

• Create project

  npm init
  

• Create exectuable script

  mkdir bin
  

• Create file cli.js

  module.exports = {  
  	run : (args) => {    
  		console.log("running command with ", args);  
  	}
  };

• Create file bin/npm-cli-app.js

  #!/usr/bin/env node
  
  require('../cli').run(process.argv);

• Run and check the script file

  node bin/npm-cli-app.js hello
  # running command with  [
  #   '/Users/me/.nvm/versions/node/v14.5.0/bin/node',
  #   '/Users/me/projects/npm-cli-app/bin/npm-cli-app.js',
  #   'hello'
  # ]

• Update pakcage.json to include the bin file :

  "bin": {
  	"npm-cli-app": "bin/npm-cli-app.js"
  },

• Install project locally for testing

  npm link
  # /Users/me/.nvm/versions/node/v14.5.0/bin/npm-cli-app -> /Users/me/.nvm/versions/node/v14.5.0/lib/node_modules/npm-cli-app/bin/npm-cli-app.js
  
  # /Users/me/.nvm/versions/node/v14.5.0/lib/node_modules/npm-cli-app -> /Users/me/projects/npm-cli-app

• Now run and test your command :

  npm-cli-app hello
  
  # running command with  [
  #   '/Users/dawn/.nvm/versions/node/v14.5.0/bin/node',
  #   '/Users/dawn/.nvm/versions/node/v14.5.0/bin/npm-cli-app',
  #   'hello'
  # ]

• Create file src/app.js

  module.exports = {
  	run : (parameters) => {
  		console.log("running app with : ", parameters)
  	}
  };

• Update cli.js to run app and pass only user provided data

  const app = require('./src/app');
  
  module.exports = {  
  	run : (args) => {    
  		app.run(args.slice(2));
  	}
  };

• Now run out comamnd again

  npm-cli-app hello
  
  # running app with :  [ 'hello' ]

• publish to npm

  npm login 
  # Enter you username/password
  
  npm publish

• Now on any other machine check the pubslihe package by running

  npx npm-cli-app hello
  

• If you do not have another machin to test, use docker to test instead :

  docker run node:14 npx npm-cli-app hello