Run-scripts-util NPM

run-scripts-util

Organize npm package.json scripts into named groups of easy to manage commands (CLI tool designed for use in npm package.json scripts)

run-scripts-util reads the runScriptsConfig settings in your package.son to get groups (arrays) of commands to execute.

Turn the traditional hard-to-follow commands:

"scripts": {
   "clean": "rimraf build dist",
   "compile-ts": "tsc",
   "compile-less": "lessc src/web-app/style.less build/web-app/style.css",
   "graphics": "copy-folder src/graphics build/my-app/graphics",
   "compile-html": "replacer src/web-app --ext=.html build/my-app",
   "pretest": "npm run clean && npm run compile-ts && npm run compile-less && npm run graphics && npm run compile-html",
   "test": "mocha spec"
},

into easy-to-read named groups (arrays) of commands:

"runScriptsConfig": {
   "clean": [
      "rimraf build dist"
   ],
   "compile": [
      "tsc",
      "lessc src/web-app/style.less build/web-app/style.css",
      "copy-folder src/graphics build/my-app/graphics",
      "replacer src/web-app --ext=.html build/my-app"
   ]
},
"scripts": {
   "pretest": "run-scripts clean compile",
   "test": "mocha spec"
},

Each group of commands is executed in order, and the commands within each group are by default executed in serial (synchronously) but can optionally be executed in parallel (asynchronously).

screenshot

A) Setup

Install package for node:

$ npm install --save-dev run-scripts-util

B) Usage

1. npm package.json scripts

Use run-scripts in the "scripts" section of your package.json file and add a parameter naming the key in runScriptsConfig holding the group (array) of commands to execute.

Example package.json scripts:

   "scripts": {
      "build": "run-scripts clean compile",
   },

2. CLI flags

Command-line flags: | Flag | Description | Value | | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ | ---------- | | --note | Place to add a comment only for humans. | string | | --only | Execute just one command in the group (starts with 1). | number | | --parallel | Execute all commands within each group asynchronously. | N/A | | --quiet | Suppress informational messages. | N/A | | --verbose | Add script group name to informational messages. | N/A |

3. Example CLI usage

Examples:

run-scripts clean compile Executes the clean group of commands and then execute the compile group fo commands.
run-scripts clean compile --quiet Does not display information messages.
run-scripts clean compile --quiet '--note=Listen to silence' Notes are handy for adding a short comment.
run-scripts compile --verbose --only=2 Executes just the second command in the compile group.
run-scripts lint watch --parallel Executes all the lint commands in parallel and then after all the commands are finished executes the watch commands in parallel.

Note: Single quotes in commands are normalized so they work cross-platform and avoid the errors often encountered on Microsoft Windows.

4. Skip a command

To comment out a command prepend two slashes (//) to the command.

In the example below, the first tsc command will be skipped while the tsc --verbose command will be executed:

"runScriptsConfig": {
  "compile": [
     "//tsc",
     "tsc --verbose",
     "lessc src/web-app/style.less build/web-app/style.css"
  ]
}

5. Debug a command

To manually run a single command, use npx from the terminal plus the --only flag.

For example, to run the third command in the compile group by itself:

$ npx run-scripts compile --only=3

C) Application Code

Even though run-scripts-util is primarily intended for build scripts, the package can be used programmatically in ESM and TypeScript projects.

Example:

import { runScripts } from 'run-scripts-util';

const options = { quiet: false };
runScripts.exec('compile', options);
runScripts.execParallel('watch', options);

See the TypeScript Declarations at the top of run-scripts.ts for documentation.

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