Add a Werkfile for werk itself :)

[jakobhellermann]

Dogfooding is always good to find out what features you might want to add. It also adds some discoverability into what this repo contains:

I've also added a npm run package script to werk-vscode, and made it so that keywords are only highlighted when they are at the start of a line, so that task build {} doesn't highlight build as a keyword. I can split that into a separate PR if you want.

[jakobhellermann]

What's missing here is running npm install.
I'd love to do

build "werk-vscode/node_modules" {
    from "werk-vscode/package-lock.json"
    run "npm --prefix werk-vscode install"
}

but that will be rebuilt every time because werk expects the node_modules to be in the target folder. I don't think it supports files in the workspace right now?

[jakobhellermann]

Limitations

Separate output directory: It is not possible to put output files next to input files, and files in the output directory are assumed to be generated by werk.

The question is, is this a "not implemented" limitation or "this fundamentally opposes the values of werk" limitation? I think it would be very useful to have but I can understand if you regard this as out of scope.

[simonask]

So a build recipe (currently) can't produce a directory, although that would be an amazing feature.

I think the --prefix flag to npm needs to point into werk's output dir, using a "<...>" interpolated variable. I would like to support the syntax run "npm --prefix <OUT_DIR>/node_modules install", but that requires a few features that are still in the pipeline.

Still, I wouldn't be too worried about integrating NPM with werk's outdatedness tracking, as long as npm gets the right flags. It would be fine (IMO) for something like this to be a task instead of a build recipe, if it can't be supported nicely.

[jakobhellermann]

I would like to support the syntax run "npm --prefix <OUT_DIR>/node_modules install", but that requires a few features that are still in the pipeline.

I think npm --prefix {OUT_DIR} would work but only if npm gets executed from the cwd of vscode-werk. I don't think that's possible right now, right?
But a

build "werk-vscode/node_modules" {
    from "werk-vscode/package-lock.json"
    cwd "werk-vscode"
    run "npm install --prefix {OUT_DIR}"
}

would probably not be too hard to add, and also useful because not every tool has a -f / --manifest-path / --prefix flag.

(I also tried run "sh -c 'cd werk-vscode && npm install'" but the quotes don't get parsed: &command_line = Absolute { path: "/usr/bin/sh" } "-c" "\'cd" "werk-vscode" "&&" "npm" "install\'")

[simonask]

I want sh -c '...' to be supported, feel free to create an issue for it.

I'll much around with npm a bit and try to figure out what the best solution is here. I bet it's a useful thing that people will be looking for in the docs too.

[simonask]

Oooh amazing! I'll take a look at this tomorrow :)

[simonask]

Funnily, this will usually clobber the process doing it, which will always fail on Windows. Might be nice for completeness, still.

[jakobhellermann]

I just rebased this on main, it there anything else I should change before this is ready to merge?

[simonask]

Some things discussed in this PR have actually been implemented. If you like, you can go through and bring it up to speed, but I'd also love to have a closer look myself, particularly around the NPM stuff. (Sorry for the delay, I've been a bit pressed for time. 😅)

[jakobhellermann]

Sorry for the delay, I've been a bit pressed for time. 😅

no problem, don't feel pressured to look into it, it's not time critical 😄

particularly around the NPM stuff.

The main problem (which I think hasn't changed in the main branch) is that node really expects the node_modules to be in the workspace, not in another target folder. While werk assumes the opposite.

Actually, I just noticed that you can easily emulate in-workspace build artifacts by having a build task that creates a dummy file in the target directory and otherwise works in the workspace:

build "werk-vscode/node_modules" {
    from ["werk-vscode/package.json", "werk-vscode/package-lock.json"]
    run ["npm --prefix werk-vscode install", "touch <out>"]
}

It actually does exactly what you'd need, if you don't find it too hacky.

[simonask]

Awesome! I think the only hacky thing about it is the naming, because out-dir/werk-vscode/node_modules will end up being a file that has no apparent relation to the actual node_modules directory.

This is a really interesting pattern! Kind of a "reverse .PHONY", in that it does create an output, but the sole purpose of it is to have a node in the dependency graph with a timestamp with some side-effects. You could make this clear by naming the target werk-vscode/node_modules.timestamp or similar.

I'm wondering if this is actually a nice thing to have in general. There could be first-class language support for it, or maybe a recommendation in the book.

Also, I'll add touch as a built-in command for run blocks.