Trex 🦕

Package management for deno (pronounced "tee rex")

About

Trex is a package management tool for deno similar to npm but keeping close to the deno philosophy. Packages are cached and only one import_map.json file is generated.

// import_map.json

{
  "imports":  {
    "http/":  "https://deno.land/std/http/"
  }
}

For more information about the import maps in deno see import maps.

Additional topics

• Proxy

• Integration with nest.land

• How can I have my package available to download with Trex?

Installation

deno install -A --unstable --import-map=https://deno.land/x/trex/import_map.json -n trex --no-check https://deno.land/x/trex/cli.ts

Note: Works with deno >= 1.10.2

We shorten the install command so it's not that long

The permissions that Trex uses are:

• --allow-net
• --allow-read
• --allow-write
• --allow-run
• --allow-env

You can give those permissions explicitly.

Updating Trex

Install new version with the -f flag:

deno install -f -A --unstable --import-map=https://deno.land/x/trex/import_map.json -n trex --no-check https://deno.land/x/trex/cli.ts

Or use the upgrade command:

trex upgrade

Note: available for versions 0.2.0 or higher.

Note: to try the latest pre-release features, use the --canary flag.

Verify the installation of Trex:

trex --version

The console should print the Trex version.

For help on the commands that Trex provides, use:

trex --help

Usage

Installing from deno.land

Use the --map flag to install packages from the Standard Library (std) and those hosted at deno.land/x.

Example

Install the fs, http and fmt modules from std:

trex install --map fs http fmt

Note: you can also use the shorthand i, as in: trex i --map fs http fmt

Installing from nest.land

Use the --nest flag and specify an explicit version to install packages hosted on nest.land.

trex install --nest [pkg]@[version]

Examples

trex install --nest [email protected]

trex i --nest [email protected]

You can install std packages from nest.land by specifying the package and version:

trex install --nest [email protected]

Installing from a repository

trex install --pkg [user]/[repo or repo@tag/branch]/[path/to/file] [packageName]

Example

trex install --pkg oakserver/oak@main/mod.ts oak

Warning: In the event that the repository uses a branch other than master as the main branch, this must be specified!

The above downloads oak directly from its repository.

Example import map

All installation methods produce an import_map.json file:

{
  "imports": {
    "fs/": "https://deno.land/std/fs/",
    "http/": "https://deno.land/std/http/",
    "fmt/": "https://deno.land/std/fmt/"
  }
}

Downloading packages

Download all the packages listed in the import_map.json similar to npm install:

trex install

Adding custom packages

Install a package from a custom URL source:

trex --custom React=https://dev.jspm.io/react/index.js

// import_map.json
{
  "imports": {
    "http/": "https://deno.land/std/http/",
    "fmt/": "https://deno.land/std/fmt/",
    "oak": "https://deno.land/x/oak/mod.ts",
    "React": "https://dev.jspm.io/react/index.js"
  }
}

Deleting packages

trex delete React

Remove a specific version from the cache and the import_map.json file:

trex delete [email protected]

// import_map.json
{
  "imports": {
    "fs/": "https://deno.land/std/fs/",
    "http/": "https://deno.land/std/http/",
    "fmt/": "https://deno.land/std/fmt/",
    "oak": "https://deno.land/x/oak/mod.ts"
  }
}

Note: Removing from cache only works with packages from std and deno.land/x

Installing an explicit version of a package

Specify a package's version:

trex install --map [email protected]

// import_map.json
{
  "imports": {
    "fs/": "https://deno.land/[email protected]/fs/"
  }
}

Note: can be used with third party packages.

Checking for outdated dependencies

trex check

Warning: Currently limited to packages from deno.land/std and deno.land/x, in future versions this will support third party registries and CDN sources as well.

Run Scripts with run.json

You can create command aliases, similar to deno task or npm run.

Simply create a run.json file with the following structure:

{
  "scripts": {
    "welcome": "deno run https://deno.land/[email protected]/examples/welcome.ts"
  }
}

Aliasing external commands

You can call a command from within another, or call a script like denopack or eggs update from within a command alias:

// run.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "trex run welcome",
    "welcome": "deno run https://deno.land/[email protected]/examples/welcome.ts",
    "dev": "denon run ./app.ts",
    "build": "aleph build",
		"update": "eggs update"
  }
}

Then, for example, to update your dependencies:

trex run update

This will execute eggs update

Installation life cycle

When the command trex install or trex i executed, you can perform actions before and after the execution of trex install.

Execution order:

1. preinstall
2. install
3. postinstall

// run.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "trex run welcome",
    "welcome": "deno run https://deno.land/[email protected]/examples/welcome.ts",
    "dev": "denon run ./app.ts",
    "build": "aleph build",
    "preinstall": "deno --version",
    "postinstall": "deno test --unstable"
  }
}

Note: you can use the --watch flag to monitor the changes and rerun the script, example:

deno run --watch --unstable https://deno.land/[email protected]/examples/welcome.ts

Passing arguments to aliases

You can provide arguments when calling the command alias. These will be passed to the file to execute:

trex run start --port=3000 --env

console.log(Deno.args); // ["--port=3000", "--env"]

Reboot Script Alias Protocol (or RSAP)

With trex you can create script aliases that reload every time a file is changed, similar to running deno with the --watch flag.

The Reboot Script Alias Protocol (RSAP) provides this same functionality. Just add a files property to your run.json file, specifying an array of files that will be watched. When changes are detected in those files, your script aliases will be restarted immediately.

// run.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "trex run welcome",
    "dev": "denon run ./app.ts",
    "build": "aleph build"
  },
  "files": ["./app.ts"]
}

You only have to add the files option in the run.json file and it will only observe the files and folders that you specify, if you leave the array empty it will observe all the files.

// run.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "go build"
  },
  "files": ["./main.go"]
}

For the script alias to use rsap you just need to add the --watch or -w flag to the end of the command alias:

trex run dev --watch [...args]

It can be used with any CLI tool, compiler or interpreter.

YAML is also acceptable (run.yml or run.yaml)

- scripts:
    dev: go build
- files:
    - ./main.go

Limitations

A limitation of watch mode is that they do not restart the processes that never end (such as http servers). In those cases we recommend other alternatives, such as denon.

Virtual cli tool execution

Trex will auto detect cli file in the order of "cli.ts", "cli.js", "%pacakge-name%.ts", "%package-name%.js", "main.ts", "main.js", "mod.ts", "mod.js", "index.ts", "index.js". If you want to publish a cli package, name your cli file as either of above(e.g. cli.ts) in your root package.

trex exec allows you to run many cli tools hosted at deno.land/x

trex exec aleph init hello_world

trex will fetch aleph's cli and run without installing it locally using deno install, you can also specify the version you want to use.

trex exec [email protected] init hello_world

Permissions (perms)

You can also specify the permissions that the cli will use. Just pass the --perms flag followed by comma-separated permissions:

trex exec --perms env,read,write,net denon run ./app.ts

• env: --allow-env
• write: --allow-write
• read: --allow-read
• net: --allow-net
• run: --allow-run
• reload: --reload
• plugin: --allow-plugin
• hrtime: --allow-hrtime
• A: --allow-all

Warning: if you don't specify the permissions, they are all automatically granted to you

You can also combine this with the command alias:

// run.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "denon": "trex exec denon run"
  },
  "files": ["./app.ts"]
}

trex run denon ./app.ts

And yes, you can do this:

trex exec trex exec trex exec ....

Even this:

trex exec land trex exec land trex exec ....

This functionality is heavily inspired by npx and land. If you need another alternative to trex exec to use in deno, land this is a great option.

Local configuration and global configuration (experimental)

When you work with import maps trex by default will handle everything using an import_map.json file, but what if I want to use an import-map.json or an importMap.json instead?

That's what the global settings are for! Basically it allows you to change the behavior of trex, with respect to the file where the dependencies will be handled.

Example

trex global-config --importMap=import-map.json

This will change the default name from import_map.json to import-map.json. to obtain the name or format used you must execute the following command.

trex global-config --getImportMap

But what happens if I am working with several people on the same project and we have different configurations? For these cases there is the local configuration or local configuration file - trex.config.json:

// trex.config.json
{
  "importMap": "importMap.json"
}

This will tell trex that the format for the import map will be the one dictated by the config file. This allows that there are no problems with the different local configurations of each developer since the configuration file only affects the scope of the project.

Note: the file trex.config.json must be at the same level(scope) as the import map for trex to detect it.

Thee hierarchy that trex respects with the configurations is the following:

graph TD
trex.config.json --> LocalGlobalConfig
LocalGlobalConfig --> defaultTrexConfig

Loading

Purge a package or URL

If you want delete a package or url package from cache memory in deno, you can use the purge command to remove from cache memory.

trex purge oak

This finds the oak package in the import_map.json, and removes it from the cache.

Purging with full URL specifiers

trex purge https://deno.land/x/[email protected]/mod.ts

Checking a package's dependency tree

trex tree fs

This prints out something like:

local: C:\Users\trex\AppData\Local\deno\deps\https\deno.land\434fe4a7be02d1875....
type: TypeScript
compiled: C:\Users\trex\AppData\Local\deno\gen\https\deno.land\std\fs\mod.ts.js
map: C:\Users\trex\AppData\Local\deno\gen\https\deno.land\std\fs\mod.ts.js.map
deps:
https://deno.land/std/fs/mod.ts
  ├─┬ https://deno.land/std/fs/empty_dir.ts
  │ └─┬ https://deno.land/std/path/mod.ts
  │   ├── https://deno.land/std/path/_constants.ts
  │   ├─┬ https://deno.land/std/path/win32.ts
  │   │ ├── https://deno.land/std/path/_constants.ts
  │   │ ├─┬ https://deno.land/std/path/_util.ts
  │   │ │ └── https://deno.land/std/path/_constants.ts
  │   │ └── https://deno.land/std/_util/assert.ts
  │   ├─┬ https://deno.land/std/path/posix.ts
  │   │ ├── https://deno.land/std/path/_constants.ts
  │   │ └── https://deno.land/std/path/_util.ts
  │   ├─┬ https://deno.land/std/path/common.ts
  │   │ └─┬ https://deno.land/std/path/separator.ts
  │   │   └── https://deno.land/std/path/_constants.ts
  │   ├── https://deno.land/std/path/separator.ts
  │   ├── https://deno.land/std/path/_interface.ts
  │   └─┬ https://deno.land/std/path/glob.ts
  │     ├── https://deno.land/std/path/separator.ts
  │     ├─┬ https://deno.land/std/path/_globrex.ts
  │     │ └── https://deno.land/std/path/_constants.ts
  │     ├── https://deno.land/std/path/mod.ts
  │     └── https://deno.land/std/_util/assert.ts
  ├─┬ https://deno.land/std/fs/ensure_dir.ts
	
# ... full response was truncated for brevity

Integrity checking & lock files

Let's say your module depends on a remote module. When you compile your module for the first time, it is retrieved, compiled and cached. It will remain this way until you run your module on a new machine (e.g. in production) or reload the cache.

But what happens if the content in the remote url is changed? This could lead to your production module running with different dependency code than your local module. Deno's solution to avoid this is to use integrity checking and lock files.

Create a lockfile:

deno cache --lock=lock.json --lock-write file.ts

The above generates a lock.json file.

If you use import_map.json in input file, you can specify it:

deno cache --lock=lock.json --lock-write --import-map=import_map.json --unstable file.ts

See deno document for more info.

Complete example

Simple std server

Install http and fmt:

trex install --map http fmt

Create a simple server

// server.ts
import { serve } from "http/server.ts";
import { green } from "fmt/colors.ts";

const server = serve({ port: 8000 });
console.log(green("http://localhost:8000/"));

for await (const req of server) {
  req.respond({ body: "Hello World\n" });
}

Start the server

deno run --allow-net --import-map=import_map.json --unstable server.ts

Warning: it is important to use --import-map=import_map.json --unstable

Adding third-party packages: Example using oak

Install the master version of oak

trex i --map oak

This adds oak to the import_map.json file:

{
  "imports": {
    "http/": "https://deno.land/std/http/",
    "fmt/": "https://deno.land/std/fmt/",
    "oak": "https://deno.land/x/oak/mod.ts"
  }
}

Then create an oak application.

Note the import statement, thanks to the import_map.json addition:

// app.ts
import { Application } from "oak";

const app = new Application();

app.use((ctx) => {
  ctx.response.body = "Hello World!";
});

await app.listen({ port: 8000 });

Run the server

deno run --allow-net --import-map=import_map.json --unstable app.ts

Warning: it is important to use --import-map=import_map.json --unstable

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, see CONTRIBUTING GUIDELINES.

Licensing

Trex is licensed under the MIT license.

Trex is powered by