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Easy access to your version and build metadata from withinNode.js

Simple, reliable, no-runtime-dependency access to version and buildinformation from within node and Electron apps should be easy.

Even if you push git SHAs into yourpackage.json, afterminification,asarification and installation into who-knows-whereplatform-specific directory structures, you'll still be fighting__dirname bugs trying to find where yourpackage.json went.

In TypeScript and ES6 Module worlds, there's a super simple,minification-compatible and asar-compatible solution to importing informationfrom outside your current file, and it's great.

It's calledimport. Or for youold-skoolkids,require.

If we can write build-specific information as constantsas code, living inour codebase, consumption of this metadata becomes trivial. Add it to your buildpipeline, import the thing, and then solve the Big Problems.

mkver produces either:

• aVersion.ts (the default, forTypeScriptusers),
• aversion.mjs (forJavaScriptmoduleusers),or
• aversion.js (if you're usingCommonJS) with your git SHA andversion information exported as constants.

// Version.tsexportconstversion="1.2.3-beta.4"exportconstversionMajor=1exportconstversionMinor=2exportconstversionPatch=3exportconstversionPrerelease=["beta",4]exportconstrelease="1.2.3-beta.4+20220101105815"exportconstgitSha="dc336bc8e1ea6b4e2f393f98233839b6c23cb812"exportconstgitDate=newDate(1641063495000)exportdefault{  version,  versionMajor,  versionMinor,  versionPatch,  versionPrerelease,  release,  gitSha,  gitDate,}

The filename can be anything you want, but the file extension must be.ts,.mjs, or.js.

For extra credit, it also creates aSemVer-compatiblereleasetag that looks like${version}+${YYYYMMDDhhmmss of gitDate}, and agitDate, which is aDateinstance of when that last git commit happened.

npm i --save-dev mkver oryarn add -D mkver

Add apre... npm script to yourpackage.json that runsmkver:

"scripts": {..."precompile":"mkver","compile":"tsc",...  }

Addmkver as apre... script for your test script and/or yourwebpack/gulp/grunt/browserify pipeline in yourpackage.json:

"scripts":{    ..."prebuild":"mkver ./lib/version.mjs",// or ./lib/version.js"build":"webpack",// or whatever you use    ...}

You should add yourVersion.ts,version.mjs, orversion.js file toyour project's.gitignore.

mkver is a pretty simple, no-dependencies, three-step, one-trick pony:

1. mkver first looks for apackage.json in., then.., then../..,etc, and extracts theversion value.
2. mkver thenexecsgit rev-parse HEAD to get the last commit SHA. Havinggit available tothe calling shell is a prerequisite. Please don't file a bug report for this.
3. Finally,mkver writes the contents to the first argument given tomkver,which can include a subdirectory. The default output is./Version.ts.Existing files with that name will be overwritten.mkver uses the fileextension to determine what format (TypeScript, module, or es6) to render theoutput.

If anything goes wrong, expect output onstderr, and a non-zero exit code.

import{version,release}from"./Version"

const{ version, release}=require("./version")// < mind the case matches whatever you give mkver

Remember tomkver version.js in your npm script (see the Installation's "Step 2" above!)

Need access to yourrelease from, say, your deploy script written inbash?

  release=$(node -e"console.log(require('./path/to/Version.js').release)")

SeeCHANGELOG.md.