NodeOS Package Manager

NodeOS uses NPM for package management, but the npm command is not sufficient for proper installation of NodeOS packages. The npkg command handles all OS-related package management. If you're writing a NodeJS app, you will still use the npm command locally.

Usage

Usage: npkg COMMAND PACKAGE

Commands:
  
  install      install package
  remove       remove package
  
  start        start service
  stop         stop service

Installing Packages

Installing via npkg install is a lot like npm install -g, except npkg only installs the package for the current user. Packages are installed to $HOME/lib/node_modules and binaries are linked to $HOME/bin. NodeOS will have a very minimal set of executables outside of $HOME/bin, thus a users command-line experience is almost completely isolated from other users on the system.

Removing a package only removes it for the current user. Packages and linked binaries are always partitioned by user, thus you do not need to be root to call npkg.

Binaries are discovered exactly like npm install via the bin key in package.json.

Starting Services

Packages can expose services as well as binaries. Calling npkg start PACKAGE is the same as calling npm start, only the stared service is run by init and daemonized.

The npkg start command can resolve both global and local packages. Local packages start with either ./ or / and are resolved as relative or absolute URLs. Global packages are resolved under $HOME/lib/node_modules.

Start a Relative Package

$ cd ~
$ npkg start ./myapp
--> starting ~/myapp
--> reading ~/myapp/package.json

Start a Global Package

$ cd ~
$ npkg start myapp
--> starting ~/lib/node_modules/myapp
--> reading ~/lib/node_modules/myapp/package.json

Programatic API

Access npkg programatically:

var npkg = require('npkg');
npkg.install(package, function(err,ok){
  // 
});
npkg.start(package, function(err,ok){
  //
});