Logging Node Dependencies

Intro

If you are working on a Node project in a group and you are getting "it works on my machine", but you don't want to Dockerize the project, you can output the dependencies to a file for debugging.

Final Script

Here is the finalized shell script. We will get into some of the simpler commands below if you don't want to use this whole script.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# generate_environment_report.sh
#
# A verbose shell script that:
#   1. Collects Node.js and system information
#   2. Captures global Node.js dependencies
#   3. Captures local project dependencies (if a package.json is found)
#   4. Combines them into a single JSON report
#   5. Writes the output to environment_report.json

################################################################################
#                               CONFIGURATION
################################################################################

OUTPUT_FILE="environment_report.json"
SYSTEM_INFO_TMP="$(mktemp)"  # Temporary file to store system info

################################################################################
#                               HELPER FUNCTIONS
################################################################################

##
# Logs an informational message to stdout
# Usage: log_info "some message"
##
log_info() {
  local msg="$1"
  echo "[INFO] $msg"
}

##
# Logs a warning to stdout
# Usage: log_warn "some warning message"
##
log_warn() {
  local msg="$1"
  echo "[WARN] $msg"
}

##
# Logs an error message to stderr
# Usage: log_error "error message"
##
log_error() {
  local msg="$1"
  >&2 echo "[ERROR] $msg"
}

##
# safe_npm_list
#
# Runs `npm list ... --json` in a subshell, capturing stdout into a temporary
# file. Discards stderr to avoid mixing JSON with warnings. If the temporary
# file contains no data (npm may exit non-zero or produce empty output on errors),
# fallback to an empty JSON object ("{}").
#
# Usage:
#   safe_npm_list [-g --depth=0]
#   safe_npm_list --all
##
safe_npm_list() {
  local tmpfile
  tmpfile="$(mktemp)"

  npm list "$@" --json 1>"$tmpfile" 2>/dev/null

  if [[ -s "$tmpfile" ]]; then
    # The tmpfile is non-empty, so presumably it contains valid JSON output.
    cat "$tmpfile"
  else
    # Fallback to empty JSON if nothing was written
    echo "{}"
  fi

  rm -f "$tmpfile"
}

################################################################################
#                             MAIN SCRIPT LOGIC
################################################################################

log_info "Collecting environment details..."

# 1) System information
log_info "Gathering Node.js and OS details..."
node_version="$(node -v 2>/dev/null)"
if [[ -z "$node_version" ]]; then
  node_version="Not Found"
  log_warn "Node.js not found or not in PATH."
fi

npm_version="$(npm -v 2>/dev/null)"
if [[ -z "$npm_version" ]]; then
  npm_version="Not Found"
  log_warn "NPM not found or not in PATH."
fi

os_info="$(uname -a)"

cat <<EOL > "$SYSTEM_INFO_TMP"
{
  "node_version": "$node_version",
  "npm_version": "$npm_version",
  "os_info": "$os_info"
}
EOL

# 2) Global Node.js dependencies
log_info "Collecting global Node.js dependencies..."
global_dependencies="$(safe_npm_list -g --depth=0)"

# 3) Project dependencies
log_info "Checking for local project dependencies..."
if [[ -f "package.json" ]]; then
  log_info "package.json found. Collecting project dependencies..."
  project_dependencies="$(safe_npm_list --all)"
else
  log_warn "No package.json found in the current directory. Skipping project dependencies."
  project_dependencies="{}"
fi

# 4) Combine all data into the output file
log_info "Combining data into $OUTPUT_FILE..."
{
  echo "{"
  echo "  \"system_info\": $(cat "$SYSTEM_INFO_TMP"),"
  echo "  \"global_dependencies\": $global_dependencies,"
  echo "  \"project_dependencies\": $project_dependencies"
  echo "}"
} > "$OUTPUT_FILE"

# 5) Cleanup temporary files
log_info "Cleaning up temporary files..."
rm -f "$SYSTEM_INFO_TMP"

log_info "Environment report saved to '$OUTPUT_FILE'."

################################################################################
#                               END OF SCRIPT
################################################################################

To use the script follow these steps:

1. Copy the script into a file named generate_environment_report.sh.

2. Make the script executable with chmod +x generate_environment_report.sh.

3. Run the script with ./generate_environment_report.sh.

With the output files, you can compare the dependencies between different machines.

Simpler Commands

If you don't want to use the whole script, you can use these simpler commands to list the dependencies.

1. Output the list of project dependencies and their versions

npm list --all --json > project-dependencies.json

2. List global npm packages

npm list -g --depth=0 --json > global-node-dependencies.json

3. Get system information

node -v > system-info.txt
npm -v >> system-info.txt
uname -a >> system-info.txt

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