Version 0.8.1 is a new release of xpm; it allows to install xPacks from Git repositories and adds new commands (list, uninstall); it also changes the default global xPacks store location on Linux.

xpm stands for xPack project manager and is a Node.js CLI application to manage xPacks.

Install

xpm is a Node.js module that can be installed with npm.

For the prerequisites, since it is recommended to use a version manager or to customize the npm install location, please read the Install page for more details.

To install the latest stable version available, use:

npm uninstall --global xpm
npm install --global xpm@latest

To install this specific version, use:

xpm install --global xpm@0.8.1

Changes

Except the removed command (build), the 0.8.1 release is generally compatible with previous 0.7.x releases.

Bug fixes

  • [#66] due to a partial implementation, installing packages that were not published in the npmjs.com repository, directly from Git, GitHub, GitLab, archive or local files, failed; fixed
  • [#72] installing standalone packages was done by directly copying the content locally; for consistency reasons,the behaviour was changed, the content is now also installed in the global xPacks store and links are added locally, as for any package
  • [#70] in certain conditions, if the project package.json had no name/version properties defined, the program crashed with asserts; a better error processing was implemented

Enhancements

  • [#78] installing dependencies proved quite slow; to make things faster, dependencies are downloaded in parallel
  • [#13] the command uninstall was added; it can remove packages from the local project or from the central xPacks store (-g)
  • [#76] the command list was added; it can list packages installed in the local project or in the central xPacks store (-g)
  • [#73] with folders from the central xPacks store linked to the local project, it was possible to change the content in the central xPacks store, thus damaging the packages; to prevent this, now all installed packages are changed to read-only, and changed back to read-write only before uninstall
  • [#60] the default location for installing global packages on Linux was changed from $HOME/opt to $HOME/.local, to better match the recommended Linux file system hierarchy
  • [#71] the general program verbosity was a bit too high; reduced; for first time users it is recommended to add -v to increase verbosity
  • [#68] in certain conditions, after displaying errors, the program continued to output several more lines, making spotting errors more difficult; fixed
  • [#74] in certain conditions, when the internal links were no longer available, the link command reported an internal error (ENOENT), instead of a more user friendly message informing about the broken link; fixed

Other changes

  • [#75] the build command was removed, its functionality is already provided by the more general run command

Known problems

  • the warnings triggered by third party dependencies during install; fixed in v0.10.2
  • [#57] when multiple versions of the same package are referenced via different dependencies paths, the program fails; version mitigation will be implemented in a future release.

Documentation

The program interprets --help and displays a top help page:

$ xpm --help

The xPack package manager command line tool
Usage: xpm <command> [<subcommand>...] [<options> ...] [<args>...]

where <command> is one of:
  init, install, link, list, run-script, uninstall

Common options:
  --loglevel <level>     Set log level (silent|warn|info|verbose|debug|trace)
  -s|--silent            Disable all messages (--loglevel silent)
  -q|--quiet             Mostly quiet, warnings and errors (--loglevel warn)
  --informative          Informative (--loglevel info)
  -v|--verbose           Verbose (--loglevel verbose)
  -d|--debug             Debug messages (--loglevel debug)
  -dd|--trace            Trace messages (--loglevel trace, -d -d)
  --no-update-notifier   Skip check for a more recent version
  -C <folder>            Set current folder

xpm -h|--help            Quick help
xpm <command> -h|--help  Quick help on command
xpm --version            Show version
xpm -i|--interactive     Enter interactive mode

npm xpm@0.8.1 '/Users/ilg/.nvm/versions/node/v12.14.0/lib/node_modules/xpm'
Home page: <https://xpack.github.io/xpm/>
Bug reports: <https://github.com/xpack/xpm-js/issues/>

Similar pages are available for each command.

For more details, the project documentation is available online from the web site.

Supported platforms

npm is a portable application that can run on Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux.

CI tests

Continuous integration tests are done via GitHub Actions.

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Credit to Shields IO for the badges.