| # effective-module-tree | |
| CLI tool that generates an ASCII tree with the representation of packages in `node_modules` and | |
| their dependencies. This works over the actual `node_modules` files, so you need to install your | |
| dependencies first (i.e. `npm install` or `yarn install`). | |
| It generates the _logical_ representation of the tree. A package may appear multiple times if | |
| it is depended on by multiple packages, even if all point to the same file on the filesystem. | |
| In other words, it "un-hoist" hoisted/deduped packages. | |
| ## Why? | |
| Usually, the package manger has a way to list the dependencies (`npm ls` or `yarn list`). However | |
| this includes deduplicated packages, and requires the presence of the lock file to generate the | |
| tree. This is the package manager's vision of the tree. | |
| System tools like `ls`, `find` or `tree` can generate a similar output, but those represent the | |
| filesystem view of the tree. Depending on how effective the package manager is hoisting dependencies, | |
| this view may not be comparable. | |
| `effective-module-tree` generates node's vision of the dependency tree. Is what node will find when | |
| requiring dependencies, ignoring where the package physically live in the file system. This tree | |
| should be consistent across package managers and different hoisting capabilities. As such, it can | |
| be used to verify that the dependeny tree remains constant when migrating to a different package | |
| manager. | |
| ## Usage | |
| Run `effective-module-tree` in the root of your project. | |
| Use `effective-module-tree --root <path>` to print the tree in a different project. Example: | |
| ```bash | |
| effective-module-tree --root "./src/package.json" | |
| ``` | |
| This tool can generate either an ascii tree, or a list (easier to visualize dependency chains in | |
| big trees). It can be specified with the flags `-o tree` or `-o list`. | |
| Check out `effective-module-tree --help` for other flags and examples. | |
| ## Troubleshooting | |
| Invoke the command with `DEBUG=effective-module-tree ./effective-module-tree` to get a verbose | |
| log of what is going on. | |