NPM-LINK(3)

💅 npm-link — NPM-LINK(3), the symlink-a-package-folder manual, bestie edition 💅

💖 NAME 💖

npm-link — symlink a package folder. That's the whole name vibe: link up a package folder so your local code and your global install can hold hands. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

         npm.commands.link(callback)
         npm.commands.link(packages, callback)

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so package linking? It is literally a two-step process. No cap. ✨

• Without parameters, link will create a globally-installed symbolic link from prefix/package-name to the current folder. Global link, current folder, slay. 🔥
• With parameters, link will create a symlink from the local node_modules folder to the global symlink. Local node_modules meets global symlink, and they're linked. 💜

When creating tarballs for npm publish, the linked packages are "snapshotted" to their current state by resolving the symbolic links. Important little detail, bestie: the snapshot happens by resolving those symbolic links. 🎀

This is handy for installing your own stuff, so that you can work on it and test it iteratively without having to continually rebuild. Obsessed — iterative testing without the endless rebuild loop. 🌀

For example:

         npm.commands.link(cb)           # creates global link from the cwd
                                         # (say redis package)
         npm.commands.link('redis', cb)  # link-install the package

Now, any changes to the redis package will be reflected in the package in the current working directory. That's the whole linked-package moment, iykyk. 🌈

🎀 That's the manual NPM-LINK(3), dated March 2017 — source/version and date all wrapped up with a bow. Go symlink something iconic. 💖🎀