track-coach

Simple replacement for npm run scripts

Why?

npm run TASK_NAME is a sufficient task runner in most scenarios, but making it work cross-platform requires a combination of things like npm-run-all or concurrently and the use of pre- and post- prefixes. This can become really unwieldy if you want to start a server, run a task, then shut down a server. track-coach makes this process easy.

Install

npm install --save-dev track-coach

Usage

// package.json

{
  ...
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node ./scripts.js"
  }
}

// scripts.js

const {
  coach,
  run,
  hide,
  prepare,
  delay,
  managedRun,
} = require('track-coach');

const tasks = {
  string: "echo 'you can use a string'",

  fn() {
    console.log('you can use a function');
  },

  variable({ someVar }) {
    // npm start --someVar=thing
    console.log(`you can pass variables like ${someVar}`);
  },

  env() {
    // changing process.env changes variables in the shell
    process.env.CUSTOM = 'blah';
    await run('echo $CUSTOM');
  },

  async shellOut() {
    await run('echo "run allows you to shell out"');
  },

  async hideSecret() {
    // Note: hide only hides the secret in the track-coach logs,
    //       not the shell output
    await run(`echo "hide a ${hide('secret')} from the logs"`);
  },

  async prepareCommand() {
    await run(prepare`
      echo "prepare allows
            you to separate
            commands if it's
            easier to read"
    `);
  },

  // managedRun allows you to start a script, then end it later
  startServer() {
    return managedRun('npm run server');
  },
  doTask() {
    const server = tasks.startServer();

    await delay(1000);
    console.log('delay makes it easy to wait for x ms');

    server.childProcess.kill();
    await server.promise();
  }
};

coach(tasks);

Now you can run any of the tasks with npm start TASK_NAME

License

MIT