dyn-repl

Install

$ npm install [-S] dyn-repl
    # or
$ npm install [-S] hoegaarden/dyn-repl

Test

$ npm test

Description

This module can be used to manage a REPL exposed via a socket. The module watches package.json (or any other file, for that matter), if it finds the key /config/dynReplSocket it tries to start the socket server on the path given in this key.

It's ment for being used in server applications or other long running proesses, where you perhaps want to inspect internals in the future but you don't want to have a socket/REPL open all the time and don't want to restart the process.

Example

// pakage.json
{
    "name" : "myCoolApp" ,
    "dependencies" : {
        "dyn-repl" : "*"
    } ,
    "scripts" : {
        "start" : "node myCoolApp.js" ,
        "repl" : "DYN_REPL_SOCK=\"$npm_package_config_dynReplSocket\" npm run dyn-repl connect"
    }
}

// myCoolApp.js
var DynRepl = require('dyn-repl');

// ... the cool application code itself ...

var exposedData = {
    app : app ,
    routes : routes ,
    ... : ...
}

var repl = DynRepl(exposedData).start();

process.on('exit', repl.end);
process.on('SIGINT', function(){
    repl.end( process.exit.bind(process, 1) );
});

So now when you start your application with npm start no socket server is started. But when you add

    "config" : {
        "dynReplSocket" : "/tmp/temporary.sock"
    }

to yoyr package.json the socket server exposing the REPL gets started. Now you either can use socat or similar to connect to said socket, or you just call

$ npm run repl
    ...
Connected.
myCoolApp :: console.log(app)
{ ... }
undefined
myCoolApp :: ^D
Disconnected.
$ 

Changing dynReplSocket in package.json again to something falsy terminates the socket server again.

Constructor

DynRepl(data, opts)

data

An Object with all the data the REPL should have access to

opts

• verbose: default false, if set to true, it will print some messages and warnings to STDOUT
• file: default: ./package.json, the file it should watch and read the path to the socket from

Methods

#start()

Starts watching the file for configured socket path

#end(cb)

Stops wathing the file and closes the socket server (if no more clients are connected)

Events

listen

... when a client connects to the socket

connection

... when a client connects to the socket

unlisten

... when a socket server gets destroyed

end

... when end() is called and the socket server is shut down

error

... on some error(s)

Client

The client shipped with this module is shamelessly stolen from jakwings ... Thank you!