Manage Linked Packages, for both npm or Yarn

Created: 28th February 2019

manage-linked-packages is a tool to help you find, list and reset npm and Yarn global linked packages, manually on the command-line or programmatically in scripts.

For installation and usage instructions carry on reading or visit the manage-linked-packages npm registry page.

Why would I need to `link` projects?

During development of JavaScript projects, like Node.js, React and GatsbyJS based projects, I will depend on the functionality and utilities of plugins and packages developed and distributed by the open-source community.

Sometimes, projects will require custom functionality that isn't available in an existing plugin or package. The plugin and package patterns make reusing code across projects simple and efficient. In general, I will create new plugins or packages in their own GitHub repos and folder structure on my development machines.

I work on projects based on the JavaScript mono-repo architecture, comprising of multiple linked packages, and on standalone projects. I often need to reuse the same custom plugin or package code across multiple projects on my local development machine.

I could work on the custom plugin or package code, then commit to GitHub, then install that plugin or package into my other projects from GitHub and reinstall or pull each time I need to update the shared code.

Both the npm and Yarn package managers provide an easier way to help with the development workflow, in the form of link and unlink commands. However, as I will describe in this article, the link and unlink commands have some gaps in functionality for my use-case.

npm and Yarn `link` commands

Both the npm and Yarn package management tools offer a simple way to link projects together, on your local development machine, using npm link or Yarn link. I've shown an example of how you use the link commands in Why do I need manage-linked-packages.

The link commands are great and I use them regularly in almost every project. However, there is no out-of-the-box way to locate or reset global symlinked packages, that have been linked with link commands (unless you manually go to each project and perform further unlink commands, which might suit your requirements perfectly).

manage-linked-packages

manage-linked-packages enables me to find, list and reset npm and Yarn global linked (link) packages, manually on the command-line or programmatically in scripts.

manage-linked-packages improves the development experience, with the size of projects, local development machine setup and number of plugin or package projects that I work on.

For installation and usage instructions carry on reading or visit the manage-linked-packages npm registry page.

How do the Yarn or npm `link` commands work?

The link commands, in npm and Yarn, work by creating global symlinks to your plugin or package project (or Package A) on your local development machine. You can then use Package A in your other projects (or Package B) using link commands, which create a Project B symlink package-b/node_modules/package-a back to global Project A.

Example:

cd /projects/project-a
yarn link # or, npm link

cd /projects/project-b
yarn link "project-a" # or, npm link "project-a"

You can then reverse/remove these links manually:

cd /projects/project-b # or project-c, project-d etc
yarn unlink "project-a" # or, npm unlink "project-a"

# Then remove the global linked package:
cd /projects/project-a
yarn unlink # or, npm unlink

That would enable you to rename or move Project A.

So far so good...

If you only keep your plugin or package projects at one path on your local development machine, then you are probably going to be fine with the out-of-the-box functionality of the link commands.

Why do I need `manage-linked-packages`?

Sometimes you might need to move the location of Project A or rename a project that is referenced in many child projects. You might also need Project A to be in multiple locations for development workflow, virtual machine setup, multiple workspaces, multiple IDEs, etc. You could perform the manual process as described above, but that would be time consuming in some scenarios.

Both the npm and Yarn link and unlink commands start to present problems for these scenarios. They don't do any tidying up of the global symlinks automatically when you make changes to the project folder structure.

manage-linked-packages helps you to manage these packages manually or programmatically in Yarn/npm scripts.

How to use `manage-linked-packages`?

First, install manage-linked-packages globally:

yarn global add manage-linked-packages # or, npm install -g manage-linked-packages

Then, manually in your CLI or as part of your npm/Yarn scripts use manage-linked-packages like:

manage-linked-packages [options]

Options:

Examples

To locate the Yarn global linked package called `project-a`:

manage-linked-packages -m yarn -a locate -n project-a

This returns a success message with the real path of the linked package, for example: found: /Users/user1/Projects/project-a

To reset the npm global linked package called `project-a`:

manage-linked-packages -m npm -a reset -n project-a

This returns the output of the yarn unlink or npm unlink command that is performed in the appropriate global folder.

Uninstall

yarn global remove manage-linked-packages # or, npm uninstall -g manage-linked-packages

Thank you

Thank you for reading my introduction to manage-linked-packages - a tool to help you find, list and reset npm and Yarn global linked link packages, manually on the command-line or programmatically in scripts.

For installation and usage instructions read this article or visit the manage-linked-packages npm registry page.

Bugs, Issues and Feature Bequests

To report any bugs, issues or request additional features - please submit an issue ticket via the manage-linked-packages GitHub repository.

Why would I need to link projects?

npm and Yarn link commands