Manage Linked Packages

List and reset NPM and Yarn global linked packages, manually or programmatically in Yarn/NPM scripts.

There is no out-of-the-box way to locate or reset packages that have been linked with NPM link or Yarn link.

Contents

• Use-case example
• Install
• Usage
• Uninstall

Use-case example

• Image you are developing a local package (PackageA) and you want another local package you are developing (PackageB) to use it, without having to publish packages in development to NPM/GitHub, then you use yarn link or npm link to create a global linked package
• yarn link and npm link won't let you create/override a global linked package, say, if you needed to change folders where PackageA is located, or have a duplicate folder (for valid reasons). You have to yarn unlink or npm unlink PackageA first manually
• You have to remember the location of PackageA, which can get difficult on machines with large number of projects

manage-linked-packages helps you to manage these packages manually or programmatically in Yarn/NPM scripts.

Install

With NPM:

npm install -g manage-linked-packages

With Yarn:

yarn global add manage-linked-packages

Usage

In your terminal or NPM/Yarn script type:

manage-linked-packages [options]

Options:

Short Syntax	Long Syntax	Description
-m <package-manager>	--package-manager <package-manager>	required: package manager to manage (yarn or npm)
-a <manage-action>	--manage-action <manage-action>	required: manage action to take (locate or reset)
-n <package-name>	--package-name <package-name>	required: name of global linked yarn/npm package to manage
-V	--version	output the version number
-h, --help output usage information

Examples

To locate the Yarn global linked package called some-package:

manage-linked-packages -m yarn -a locate -n some-package

This returns a success message with the real path of the linked package, for example:

found: /Users/user1/Projects/some-package

To reset the NPM global linked package called some-package:

manage-linked-packages -m npm -a reset -n some-package

This returns the output of the yarn unlink or npm unlink command that is performed in the appropriate global folder.

Uninstall

With NPM:

npm uninstall -g manage-linked-packages

With Yarn:

yarn global remove manage-linked-packages