How to publish a npm package with distribution files?

Question

I would like to publish a npm package that contains my source as well as distribution files. My Github repository contains src folder which contains JavaScript

Answer 1

When you npm publish, if you don't have an .npmignore file, npm will use your .gitignore file (in your case you excluded the dist folder).

To solve your problem, create a .npmignore file based on your .gitignore file, without ignoring the dist folder.

Soure : https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/developers#keeping-files-out-of-your-package

Answer 2

Minimal example of how to use data files from a script

Another common use case is to have data files that your scripts need to use.

This can be done easily by using the techniques mentioned at: In node.JS how can I get the path of a module I have loaded via require that is *not* mine (i.e. in some node_module)

The full example can be found at:

• source: https://github.com/cirosantilli/linux-kernel-module-cheat/tree/008bd8000234d74e00845939ea6c47d302a26706/npm/data-files
• published: https://www.npmjs.com/package/cirosantilli-data-files

With this setup, the file mydata.txt gets put into node_modules/cirosantilli-data-files/mydata.txt after installation because we added it to our files: entry of package.json.

Our function myfunc can then find that file and use its contents by using require.resolve. It also just works on the executable ./cirosantilli-data-files of course.

package.json

{
  "bin": {
    "cirosantilli-data-files": "cirosantilli-data-files"
  },
  "license": "MIT",
  "files":  [
    "cirosantilli-data-files",
    "mydata.txt",
    "index.js"
  ],
  "name": "cirosantilli-data-files",
  "repository": "cirosantilli/linux-kernel-module-cheat",
  "version": "0.1.0"
}

mydata.txt

hello world

index.js

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

function myfunc() {
  const package_path = path.dirname(require.resolve(
    path.join('cirosantilli-data-files', 'package.json')));
  return fs.readFileSync(path.join(package_path, 'mydata.txt'), 'utf-8');
}
exports.myfunc = myfunc;

cirosantilli-data-files

#!/usr/bin/env node
const cirosantilli_data_files = require('cirosantilli-data-files');
console.log(cirosantilli_data_files.myfunc());

The is-installed-globally package is then useful if you want to generate relative paths to the distributed files depending if they are installed locally or globally: How to tell if npm package was installed globally or locally

Answer 3

Take a look at the "files" field of package.json file https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package.json#files

From the documentation:

The "files" field is an array of files to include in your project. If you name a folder in the array, then it will also include the files inside that folder. (Unless they would be ignored by another rule.)