rules_nodejs

Dependencies

Bazel works alongside your existing package manager, either npm or yarn. You manage your package.json file, editing by hand or by running commands like npm install or yarn add. The package manager will also write a lock file, indicating exact versions for all transitive dependencies, which keeps your build hermetic and reproducible. Bazel will run the package manager when the package.json or *lock.json files change, but you can also run the package manager yourself.

Bazel-managed vs self-managed dependencies

You have two options for managing your node_modules dependencies: Bazel-managed or self-managed.

With the Bazel-managed dependencies approach, Bazel is responsible for making sure that node_modules is up to date with your package[-lock].json or yarn.lock files. This means Bazel will set it up when the repository is first cloned, and rebuild it whenever it changes. With the yarn_install or npm_install repository rules, Bazel will setup your node_modules for you in an external workspace named after the repository rule. For example, a yarn_install(name = "npm", ...) will setup an external workspace named @npm with the node_modules folder inside of it as well as generating targets for each root npm package in node_modules for use as dependencies to other rules.

For Bazel to provide the strongest guarantees about reproducibility and the fidelity of your build, it is recommended that you use Bazel-managed dependencies. This approach also allows you to use the generated fine-grained npm package dependencies which can significantly reduce the number of inputs to actions, making Bazel sand-boxing and remote-execution faster if there are a large number of files under node_modules.

Note that as of Bazel 0.26, and with the recommended managed_directories attribute on the workspace rule in /WORKSPACE, the Bazel-managed node_modules directory is placed in your workspace root in the standard location used by npm or yarn.

Using Bazel-managed dependencies

To have Bazel manage its own copy of node_modules, which is useful to avoid juggling multiple toolchains, you can add one of the following to your WORKSPACE file:

Using Yarn (preferred):

load("@build_bazel_rules_nodejs//:index.bzl", "yarn_install")

yarn_install(
    name = "npm",
    package_json = "//:package.json",
    yarn_lock = "//:yarn.lock",
)

Using NPM:

load("@build_bazel_rules_nodejs//:index.bzl", "npm_install")

npm_install(
    name = "npm",
    package_json = "//:package.json",
    package_lock_json = "//:package-lock.json",
)

If you don’t need to pass any arguments to node_repositories, you can skip calling that function. yarn_install and npm_install will do it by default.

You should now add the @npm workspace to the managed_directories option in the workspace rule at the top of the file. This tells Bazel that the node_modules directory is special and is managed by the package manager. Add the workspace rule if it isn’t already in your /WORKSPACE file.

workspace(
    name = "my_wksp",
    managed_directories = {"@npm": ["node_modules"]},
)

As of Bazel 0.26 this feature is still experimental, so also add this line to the .bazelrc to opt-in:

common --experimental_allow_incremental_repository_updates

yarn_install vs. npm_install

yarn_install is the preferred rule for setting up Bazel-managed dependencies for a number of reasons:

Fine-grained npm package dependencies

You can then reference individual npm packages in your BUILD rules via:

load("@build_bazel_rules_nodejs//:index.bzl", "nodejs_binary")

nodejs_binary(
    name = "bar",
    data = [
      "@npm//foo",
      "@npm//baz",
    ]
    ...
)

In this case, the bar nodejs_binary depends only the foo and baz npm packages and all of their transitive deps.

For other rules such as jasmine_node_test, fine grained npm dependencies are specified in the deps attribute:

jasmine_node_test(
    name = "test",
    ...
    deps = [
        "@npm//jasmine",
        "@npm//foo",
        "@npm//baz",
        ...
    ],
)

Multiple sets of npm dependencies

If your workspace has multiple applications, each with their own package.json and npm deps, yarn_install (or npm_install) can be called separately for each.

workspace(
    name = "my_wksp",
    managed_directories = {
        "@app1_npm": ["app1/node_modules"],
        "@app2_npm": ["app2/node_modules"],
    },
)

yarn_install(
    name = "app1_npm",
    package_json = "//app1:package.json",
    yarn_lock = "//app1:yarn.lock",
)

yarn_install(
    name = "app2_npm",
    package_json = "//app2:package.json",
    yarn_lock = "//app2:yarn.lock",
)

Your application would then reference its deps as (for example) @app1_npm//lodash, or @app2_npm//jquery.

Fine-grained npm package nodejs_binary targets

If an npm package lists one or more bin entry points in its package.json, nodejs_binary targets will be generated for these.

For example, the protractor package has two bin entries in its package.json:

  "bin": {
    "protractor": "bin/protractor",
    "webdriver-manager": "bin/webdriver-manager"
  },

These will result in two generated nodejs_binary targets in the @npm//protractor/bin package (if your npm deps workspace is @npm):

These targets can be used as executables for actions in custom rules or can be run by Bazel directly. For example, you can run protractor with the following:

$ bazel run @npm//protractor/bin:protractor

Note: These targets are in the protractor/bin package so they don’t conflict with the targets to use in deps[]. For example, @npm//protractor:protractor is target to use in deps[] while @npm//protractor/bin:protractor is the binary target.

Coarse node_modules dependencies

Using fine grained npm dependencies is recommended to minimize the number of inputs to your rules. However, for backward compatibility there are also filegroups defined by yarn_install and npm_install that include all packages under node_modules and which can be used with the node_modules attribute of nodejs rules.

load("@build_bazel_rules_nodejs//:index.bzl", "nodejs_binary")

nodejs_binary(
    name = "bar",
    node_modules = "@npm//:node_modules",
)

Using self-managed dependencies

If you’d like to have Bazel use the node_modules directory you are managing, then next you will create a BUILD.bazel file in your project root containing:

package(default_visibility = ["//visibility:public"])

filegroup(
    name = "node_modules",
    srcs = glob(
        include = ["node_modules/**/*"],
        exclude = [
          # Files under test & docs may contain file names that
          # are not legal Bazel labels (e.g.,
          # node_modules/ecstatic/test/public/中文/檔案.html)
          "node_modules/test/**",
          "node_modules/docs/**",
          # Files with spaces are not allowed in Bazel runfiles
          # See https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/4327
          "node_modules/**/* */**",
          "node_modules/**/* *",
        ],
    ),
)

The example in examples/user_managed_deps uses self-managed dependencies.

To use the Yarn package manager, which we recommend for its built-in verification command, you can run:

$ bazel run @nodejs//:yarn_node_repositories

If you use npm instead, run:

$ bazel run @nodejs//:npm_node_repositories install

The @nodejs//:yarn_node_repositories and @nodejs//:npm_node_repositories targets will run yarn/npm on all of the package.json contexts listed package_json attribute of the node_repositories repository rule in your WORKSPACE file (node_repositories(package_json = [...])).

If there are multiple package.json contexts in this rule but you would like to run the bazel managed yarn or npm on a single context this can be done using the following targets:

$ bazel run @nodejs//:yarn -- <arguments passed to yarn>

If you use npm instead, run:

$ bazel run @nodejs//:npm -- <arguments passed to npm>

This will run yarn/npm in the current working directory. To add a package with the yarn add command, for example, you would use:

$ bazel run @nodejs//:yarn -- add <package>

Note: the arguments passed to bazel run after -- are forwarded to the executable being run.

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