xPack xpm v0.8.1 released

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

note

In the current configuration, npm complains about several deprecated packages; until these third party packages will be updated, in v0.10.2 an workaround was added, by bundling the dependencies.

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.

Download analytics

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Credit to Shields IO for the badges.

caution

The xpm tool is currently work in progress and should be used with caution.