node-nc

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About

Have you missed a good repl while developing a Node.js project?
Use node-nc to easily configure your project's console (similar to rails c).
Just type node-nc in any of your project's folder.

Installation

$ npm install -g node-nc

Usage

$ node-nc # or nc
nc > reload(false) // reloads all global files without reload nc by default
nc > .reload false // same as above
nc > $module$ // the path that is required when using module
nc > module   // the module

It is intended to be used inside Node.js projects.
The nc command can also be invoked from a projects subfolder.
If used outside a project it will not globalize any file and will save history to ~/.nc_history (~/${config.historyFileName}).

Details

This module extends Node.js basic repl functionality:

• Makes all js files global
• Makes all modules included in package.json global
• Awaits promises (experimental).
• Writes commands to a local history file.
• Configurable behavior using env variables or a nc.js file.
• Suggests params for functions and methods (experimental).

Configuration

const defaultConf = {
  useGlobal: false, // Repl useGlobal. If set to true all globals will be inside nc namespace.
  useAsync: false, // Experimental use of await in repl for node versions that don't support top level await.
  globalizeFiles: true, // Make all project files global.
  globalizeDependencies: true, // Globalize projects dependencies.
  useNcFile: true, // Use nc.js file if it exists.
  usePackageFile: true, // Use package file to determine prompt, root folter and dependencies.
  writeHistoryFile: true, // Write all commands to a file.
  historyFileName: '.nc_history', // The history filename. An absolute path can also be given.
  suggestParams: true // Experimental suggestion of params when calling a function
};

Configuration can be overwitten

• by env variables:

  NC_USE_GLOBAL, NC_USE_ASYNC, NC_GLOBALIZE_FILES, NC_GLOBALIZE_DEPENDENCIES, NC_USE_NC_FILE, NC_USE_PACKAGE_FILE, NC_WRITE_HISTORY_FILE, NC_HISTORY_FILE_NAME, NC_SUGGEST_PARAMS or

• by using an nc.js file. This file can also be used to make some project initializations Eg. connect to a database, declare some global vars etc. In nc.js a method setConfig(options) is available to overwrite the default configurations. Note that NC_USE_NC_FILE env variable must not be false.

  Example of a simple nc.js file:

    // overwrite useGlobal
    setConfig({ useGlobal:true });.
  
    // connect to db
    mongoose.connect(mongooseDb, options, function (err, data) {});

Using await

If you have a very complicated expression (many nested expresssions) it is better to split it in two:

// Bad
await Compicated-Epression

// Good
const promise = Complicated-expression
await promise;

This way await will work as expected.

Function Parameter Suggestions

When you type a parenthesis repl will try to figure out if the previous expression is a function and suggest its parameters.

Build in profiler

Test a function's performance using the buildin profiler. The function can return a promise.

node-nc> profiler(() => fib(10))
Function ()=> fib(10) ran 40,770 times in 995.99 ms

node-nc> await profiler(() => fib(20))
Function ()=> fib(20) ran 328 times in 942.71 ms

node-nc> await profiler(() => Promise.resolve(true), () => {})
Run function ()=> Promise.resolve(true) 171,784 times in 1020.95 ms
Run function ()=>{} 111,795,737 times in 1007.90 ms