A custom python application that serves as command line tool to better manage npm applications with child modules. The npm documentation says that npm link should be used for that. However, this approach is not very elegant, and particularly useless when you have different versions of the same module in different contexts, as npm link works globally. Furthermore, npm link is not working that well under Windows.

The screwdriver manages npm modules manually, cloning modules which have a git version field, and using npm install for others.

  dependencies: {
    "handlebars": "*",
    "substance": "substance/substance#master",
    "other": "substance/other#ea60d5e057bc1c6dcee62346a6433b01cbfeeb2c",
  }

Only those modules are considered as source modules which have non-SHA-1 branch tag. In the above example, "substance" would be cloned as a git repo, but other would be installed via npm install.

Clone the Screwdriver repository into some arbitrary folder:

    $ git clone https://github.com/substance/screwdriver.git

Run setup:

    $ cd screwdriver
    $ sudo python setup.py install --record screwdriver.files

Ǹow you should be able to run the Screwdriver app from command line:

    $ screwdriver --help

You can remove all files using:

    $ cd screwdriver
    $ sudo rm $(cat screwdriver.files)

1. git checkout -b :branch_name

2. Adapt package.json if you want to switch to a dev branch of a module (optional)

3. screwdriver --update (necessary after switching a branch of a module)

4. Do development

5. Bump module shas (optional)

6. Merge changes back into master

7. Commit and push changes

8. screwdriver --update (necessary if you were on a branch of a module)