strong-build

Build a node application package, preparing it for deploy to production.

It is useful standalone, but is commonly used to build applications for deployment to the StrongLoop process manager, strong-pm.

For more details, see http://strong-pm.io.

Installation

sl-build is made available through the strongloop tool as slc build, and works well with the StrongLoop Process Manager, strong-pm.

sl-build can be installed standalone with:

npm install -g strong-build

Overview

The purpose of building a node application is to bundle its dependencies so that there:

• are no deploy-time dependencies on external services
• it is in a deployable format

The build process is implemented as four commands:

• sl-build --install: the core of the build, it installs dependencies, runs custom build steps, and prunes development dependencies
• sl-build --bundle: modify the npm package.json and .npmignore configuration files so dependencies will be packed
• sl-build --pack: create an npm package of the build
• sl-build --commit: commit the build onto a git branch

The default behaviour of sl-build depends on whether the current directory is a git repository.

• In a git repository: the default is sl-build --install --commit, to build onto a git branch.
• Otherwise: the default is sl-build --bundle --install --pack, to build an npm package.

Both npm packages and git branches can be deployed to the StrongLoop process manager using the StrongLoop deploy tool.

Specifying any command disables the default, and allows any mix of commands to be run, either singly, or all at once.

Also, note that builds should be done in a clean working copy. You don't build deployment artifacts out of a possibly dirty working copy if you want reproducible builds. You can clean your working copy using git clean -x -d -f. This is too destructive for the build tool to do, but doing a build in an unclean working repository may trigger an error in a future version of the tool.

install command

Installation automates the common work flow for building application dependencies:

• npm install --ignore-scripts: Install dependencies without running scripts. Scripts can be run optionally with --scripts.
• npm run build: Custom build steps such as grunt build or bower can be specified in the package's scripts.build property, since front-end code served by node commonly requires some amount of preparation.
• npm prune --production: Remove development-only tools (such as bower, or grunt) that may have been required by the package's build scripts, but should not be deployed.

Note that compilation and install scripts should be run on the deployment server using:

• npm rebuild: Compile add-ons for current system.
• npm install: Run any install scripts (not typical, but if they exist they may be required to prepare the application for running).

If builds are done on the same system architecture as the deploy, it is possible to compile and package the add-ons, and avoid the presence of a compiler on the deployment system. This is recommended when possible, but is not the default assumption of strong-build.

bundle command

Bundling configures the package.json and .npmignore so deployment (not development) dependencies as well as any 'build' script output will not be ignored by npm pack.

This is unnecessary when using git to deploy, but mandatory when creating npm packages!

package.bundleDependencies

Bundling requires that the bundleDependencies property in the package.json file is configured to include all non-development dependencies, including optional dependencies, which are often overlooked.

Its important that you remember to add every new production dependency to the bundleDependencies property, if you don't, npm will try and install them after deploy, creating unexpected and fragile dependencies on npmjs.org.

Since keeping this up-to-date manually is likely to go wrong, we recommend allowing the bundle command to do this for you. However, the bundleDependencies property is not modified if present, so you are free to maintain it yourself, if you wish (or to not just the bundle command).

.npmignore

Setting bundle dependencies is insufficient to get the output of build tools.

Both build output and project ephemera such as test output is usually ignored using .gitignore, as it should be. However, if npm does not find a .npmignore configuration file, it uses .gitignore as a fallback. This means that if you have custom build output, such as minimized JavaScript, it will be treated as project ephemera, and not be packed by npm.

The bundle command will create an empty.npmignore file if there is a .gitignore file but there is no .npmignore file. This will work for clean repositories, but if you have any project ephemera, they will get packed.

We recommend you write and maintain you own .npmignore file unless your build process guarantees a clean working repository.

pack command

Pack output is a tar file in the format produced by npm pack and accepted by npm install and strong-deploy.

The pack file is placed in the parent directory of the application being packed, to avoid the pack file itself getting packed by future builds, and to allow the working repository to be cleaned.

If a .npmignore file was created by the bundle command, check the pack file contents carefully to ensure build products are packed, but project ephemera are not.

commit command

Committing build products into git provides the most robust tracking and storage, including versioning of deployments.

This is often done by committing both build products and dependencies (node_modules) into git where they pollute the source branches, create massive git commits and huge churn on the development branches and repositories.

The commit command does not do this.

It commits an exact replica of current branch source and build products onto a deployment branch. After the commit, the deployment branch tip shows as a merge of the deployment and source branches. This allows a complete history of deployment builds to be kept in git, but separated from the development branches. Deployment branches can be pushed to the same repository as the development branches, or not.

Note that branches prepared like this can also be pushed to platforms such as OpenShift and Heroku.

The default name of the deployment branch is "deploy", but is configurable with the --onto BRANCH modifier to the commit command.

Usage

usage: sl-build [options]
Build a node application package.
With no options, the default depends on whether a git repository is
detected or not.
If a git repository is detected the default is `--git`: install and commit the
build results to the "deploy" branch, which will be created if it does not
already exist.
If no git repository is detected the default is `--npm`: bundle, install, and
pack the build results into a `<package-name>-<version>.tgz` file.
Options:
-h,--help Print this message and exit.
-v,--version Print version and exit.
-n,--npm Same as `--install --bundle --pack`.
-g,--git Same as `--install --commit`.
-i,--install Install dependencies (without scripts, by default).
--scripts If installing, run scripts (to build addons).
-b,--bundle Modify package to bundle deployment dependencies.
-p,--pack Pack into a publishable archive (with dependencies).
Git specific options:
-c,--commit Commit build output (branch specified by --onto).
--onto BRANCH Branch to commit build results to, created if
necessary ("deploy", by default).

License

strong-build uses a dual license model.

You may use this library under the terms of the Artistic 2.0 license, or under the terms of the StrongLoop Subscription Agreement.