xpm - the xPack project manager

This project implements xpm - the xPack project manager - as a Node.js CLI application.

The main purpose of xpm is to help manage projects during development.

More specifically:

• to manage dependencies, like to install both source and binary packages, and to easily update them when new versions are released
• to manage build configurations and to run actions associated with various build steps.

The project is open-source and hosted on GitHub as xpack/xpm-js.

Release info

For more details on the xpm releases, please check the releases pages on the project web.

Quicklinks

If you already know the general facts about xpm, you can directly skip to:

• project web site
• GitHub
• how to install
• how to get support
• npmjs/xpm
• published versions

xPacks overview

xPacks are general purpose multi-version software packages, much the same as the highly successful npm modules in the Node.js JavaScript ecosystem.

xPacks are usually Git repositories and can be published on npmjs.com or any npm compatible server.

For more details, please read the xPacks 101 page.

Prerequisites

The current version requires Node.js >= 12.

Since it is highly recommended to not use sudo during install, and instead use a version manager or to customize the npm install location, please read the install page for more details.

Install

The basic command is:

npm install --global xpm@latest

Troubleshooting: in case xpm was already installed, in certain conditions the update may not succeed and xpm may become unusable; if this happens, uninstall xpm and retry the install:

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

For more details, please refer to the install page.

User info

To get an initial glimpse on the program, ask it for help:

% xpm --help

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

where <command> is one of:
  init, install, link, list, run, 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 [email protected] '/Users/ilg/.nvm/versions/node/v14.16.0/lib/node_modules/xpm'
Home page: <https://xpack.github.io/xpm/>
Bug reports: <https://github.com/xpack/xpm-js/issues/>

Configuration

Similarly to npm, the entire configuration is in package.json.

In addition to name, version, dependencies and devDependencies, there is an xpack property that groups xpm specific properties:

• properties
• actions
• buildConfigurations

Template substitutions

To increase reusability, it is possible to use substitutions in the strings defining actions. The syntax is more elaborate than the simple variable substitution, and is using the LiquidJS template engine syntax, which accepts:

• variables, like {{ configuration.name }}
• filters, like {{ configuration.name | downcase }}
• tags, like {% if os.platform != 'win32' %}xpm run execute --config synthetic-posix-cmake-debug{% endif %}

The following predefined objects are available:

• package, with the entire package.json content
• properties with the xPack properties
• os.platform with the Node.js platform (possible values are aix, darwin, freebsd, linux, openbsd, sunos, and win32)
• os.arch with the Node.js architecture (possible values are arm, arm64, ia32, mips, mipsel, ppc, ppc64, s390, s390x, x32, and x64)

If the xpm command was started with --config, properties include the configuration properties before the xPack properties and the following are also available:

• configuration with the current xPack build configuration; the configuration name is available as configuration.name

For the full list of variables available for substitutions, please read the README of the separate xpack/xpm-liquid-ts project.

Multi-line actions

In order to accommodate more complex actions, it is possible to define sequences of commands as arrays of strings, with each line executed as a separate command.

If multiple commands are generated via loops, line terminators can be inserted with {{ os.EOL }}), for example:

{% for command in package.xpack.my_commands %}{{ command }}{{ os.EOL }}{% endfor %}

The build folder path

When using build configurations, each build should be performed in a separate build folder.

This should be done using the reserved property buildFolderRelativePath, which should define a folder relative to the project root, usually below a build folder.

This property can be manually defined for each configuration, or in a computed property defined for the entire project, using a parametrised definition based on the configuration name, like:

  "xpack": {
    "properties": {
      "buildFolderRelativePath": "{{ 'build' | path_join: configuration.name | to_filename | downcase }}"
    }
  }

Change log - incompatible changes

According to semver rules:

Major version X (X.y.z | X > 0) MUST be incremented if any backwards incompatible changes are introduced to the public API.

The incompatible changes, in reverse chronological order, are:

• v0.14.x: separate xPack from npm dependencies (see 0001 policy)

Maintainer info

This page documents how to use this module in an user application. For developer and maintainer information, see the separate README-DEVELOPER.md and README-MAINTAINER.md pages.

License

The original content is released under the MIT License, with all rights reserved to Liviu Ionescu.

The design is heavily influenced by the npm application, Copyright (c) npm, Inc. and Contributors, Licensed on the terms of The Artistic License 2.0.

Note

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