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Deno Module Manager

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dmm (pronounced “Dim”) is a Deno module manager. Updating your dependencies within deps.ts and checking if new versions are available hasn’t been easier.

dmm will read your imported/exported modules that sit inside your deps.ts and check them against their latest version if you ask it to, and update them if you want it to.

  • Deno version: 1.0.5
  • Deno std version: 0.56.0

Contents

Features

  • Zero dependencies
  • Easy and simple to use
  • Checks dependencies for newer versions
  • Will update your dependencies for you
  • Gives information on modules
  • Accounts for 3rd party and std modules
  • Installation is optional
  • Will be kept up to date and maintained consistently
  • No variants of node_modules and package.json
  • No extra configuration around import maps

Quick Start

There are two ways you can use this module: installing it though deno, or running it though a URL.

As dmm only needs to read and write to your deps.ts, as well as requiring network access for reading Deno’s database.json, you can restrict the access this module has.

Install

$ deno install --allow-net --allow-read=deps.ts --allow-write=deps.ts https://deno.land/x/dmm@v1.0.5/mod.ts
$ dmm ...

Through the URL

If you are using this method, be sure to use the latest version of dmm in the command below

$ deno run <permissions> https://deno.land/x/dmm@v1.0.5/mod.ts ...

In the examples below, dmm is installed and we will be using it that way to make the commands easier to read.

Example

In this example, we are going to run through every step of dmm. We will be checking dependencies, updating them, and getting information about certain ones.

Step 1 - Info

Say I want to get information about the fmt module:

$ dmm info fmt

Information on fmt

  - Name: fmt
  - Description: Cannot retrieve descriptions for std modules
  - deno.land Link: https://deno.land/std@0.56.0/fmt
  - GitHub Repository: https://github.com/denoland/deno/tree/master/std/fmt
  - Import Statement: import * as fmt from "https://deno.land/std@0.56.0/fmt";
  - Latest Version: 0.56.0

Step 2 - Adding fmt as a dependency to use colors

Along with my current dependencies, I decided to import the colors sub-module of fmt in my deps.ts file:

export { Drash } from "https://deno.land/x/drash@v1.0.0/mod.ts"; // out of date

import * as fs from "https://deno.land/std@0.53.0/fs/mod.ts"; // out of date

import * as colors from "https://deno.land/std@0.56.0/fmt/colors.ts"; // up to date

export { fs, colors }

Take notice of the out of date dependencies.

Step 3 - Check

Now we want to check if any of our dependencies need updating, but we don’t want to update them yet.

$ dmm check
...
drash can be updated from v1.0.0 to v1.0.5
fs can be updated from 0.53.0 to 0.56.0
...

Step 4 - Update

Lets update our dependencies as some are out of date:

$ dmm update
...
drash was updated from v1.0.0 to v1.0.5
fs was updated from 0.53.0 to 0.56.0
...

Now lets check the deps.ts file, and you will notice the versions have been modified:

export { Drash } from "https://deno.land/x/drash@v1.0.5/mod.ts"; // was out of date

import * as fs from "https://deno.land/std@0.56.0/fs/mod.ts"; // was out of date

import * as colors from "https://deno.land/std@0.56.0/fmt/colors.ts";

export { fs, colors }

Step 5 - Help

Should you need any more information, use the --help option:

$ dmm --help

A module manager for Deno.

USAGE:
    deno run --allow-read --allow-net [--allow-write] https://deno.land/x/dmm@v1.0.3/mod.ts [ARGS] [MODULES]

    dmm [ARGS] [MODULES]

ARGUMENTS:
The check and update arguments cannot be used together.

    check
        Checks the specified modules for newer version. Will check all if modules are omitted.

    update
        Updates the specified modules to the newest version. Will update all if modules are omitted.

     info
        Shows information about the given module, be it std or 3rd party. The 3rd party module must be referenced at https://deno.land/x/

EXAMPLE USAGE:
    Assume you are importing an out of date version of `fs` from `std`.
    deno run --allow-net --allow-read https://deno.land/x/dmm@v1.0.3/mod.ts check fs
    deno run --allow-net --allow-read --allow-write https://deno.land/x/dmm@v1.0.3/mod.ts update fs
    deno run --allow-net https://deno.land/x/dmm@v1.0.3/mod.ts info http
    dmm info http

How it Works

dmm will only read modules that reside on deno.land, whether they are 3rd party or std modules. As long as you are either importing then exporting a module, or only exporting a module, dmm will check that dependency.

  • Your dependencies must be versioned. Not versioning your dependencies is bad practice and can lead to many problems in your project, which is why dmm will not support it. For example:

    import { red } from "https://deno.land/std@0.56.0/fmt/colors.ts";
                                          ^^^^^^^

  • dmm only supports importing/exporting modules from Deno’s registry: deno.land, 3rd party or std. For example:

    import { red } from "https://deno.land/std@0.56.0/fmt/colors.ts"; // supported
import { something } from "https://deno.land/x/something@0v1.0.0/mod.ts"; // supported

  • dmm will only pull 3rd party dependencies where the entrypoint file is mod.ts, as this follows best practice

  • dmm will read every from "https://deno.land/..." line in your deps.ts and using the name and version, will convert the dependencies into objects.

  • dmm will then retrieve the rest of the required information for later use for each module:

    • Latest version - for 3rd party modules, it’s taken from using the GitHub API for Deno’s database.json file. For std modules, it’s taken from https://deno.land/std/@<latest version>/version.ts
    • GitHub URL - Retrieved through the GitHub API
    • Description - For 3rd party modules, it is also taken from reading Deno’s database.json file, which holds all modules that display on https://deno.land/x/

  • After this, dmm rwill un different actions based on the purpose:

    • check

      Will compare the version you are using of a module with the latest one

    • update

      If the latest version is more recent than the one you use for a given module, dmm will update the version in your deps.ts file

    • info

      Displays information about the given module using information collated at the start of the script

Contributing

Contributors are welcomed!

Please read through our contributing guidelines. Included are directions for opening issues, coding standards, and notes on development.

License

By contributing your code, you agree to license your contribution under the MIT License.