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The devDependencies definitions

Purpose​

Define the xpm packages required during development.

Syntax​

{
    ...
    "devDependencies": {
        "<package>": "semver" | {
            "specifier": "<package specifier>",
            "local": "link" | "copy",
            "platforms": "<name>,..."
        },
        ...
    }
    ...
}

Description​

The devDependencies definitions is similar to the npm definition but lists the xpm definitions required during the development of the current package, usually executables and other tools.

When the xpm install is invoked in a project folder, all packages listed in xpack.devDependencies are also installed in the local project xpacks folder, and symbolic links (or forwarders/shims on windows) to all executables are created in xpacks/.bin.

No recursive search is performed.

There are two formats for defining the dependencies, the extended format specific to xpm, and the short format, used for compatibility with npm.

The formats are identical to those used by dependencies.

When installing binary packages into an xpm project, they are also added to the devDependencies list, in the extended format.

There are two formats for defining the dependencies, the extended format specific to xpm, and the short format, used for compatibility with npm.

When installing source packages into an xpm project, they are also added to the dependencies list, in the extended format.

Properties​

In the short format, the dependency value is a string, with the same content as for npm dependencies.

In the extended format, the value is an object with the following properties:

specifier​

A string that identifies the package.

  • a SemVer expression: a package with a version that matches the expression will be downloaded from the npmjs.com repository
  • a full URI/URL: the package will be installed from the address
  • user/project: a simplified syntax for GitHub projects,

local​

A string that defines the install strategy:

  • link: create a link in the local project pointing to a read-only instance of the package
  • copy: create a full writable copy in the local project

platforms​

A string that indicates the platforms where the dependency can be installed.

  • all: install on all platforms
  • ...: comma separated list of platforms (linux-x64, linux-arm64, darwin-x64, darwin-arm64, win32-x64)
note

Currently the value is ignored by npm install.

Example​

Extended format development dependency:

{
  "xpack": {
    "minimumXpmRequired": "0.19.4",
    "devDependencies": {
      "@xpack-dev-tools/cmake": {
        "specifier": "3.28.6-1.1",
        "local": "link",
        "platforms": "all"
      }
    }
  }
}