bold compass
I have a .ts with
function doX(){}
and at bottom I have
const main = async () => { doX()}
main()
However, if I import this file into another ts then main runs. So do I need yet another file to accomplish my goal of both running from command line and be importable?
magic cargo
You could run the file with command line arguments. Get the arguments using process.argv. Check if the argument exists before running main function.
quiet lily
A quick internet search on this topic lead me to: https://codewithhugo.com/node-module-entry-required/ -- which seems to answer the question in a short and correct manner
In short using:
if (require.main === module) {
main()
}
seems to be what you looking for.
And for completeness to cite the NodeJS Api Docs about why this works:
Accessing the main module
When a file is run directly from Node.js, require.main is set to its module. That means that it is possible to determine whether a file has been run directly by testing require.main === module.
For a file foo.js, this will be true if run via node foo.js, but false if run by require('./foo').
When the entry point is not a CommonJS module, require.main is undefined, and the main module is out of reach.
Didnt work cause im es6, so I found
import esMain from 'es-main';
if (esMain(import.meta)) {
// The script was run directly.
}
!close
@quiet lily @magic cargo Thank you
south lantern
I would still advise to have one file for the CLI entry and one file that exports interesting stuff.
Having side-effects (even if they are wrapped by if) will make you lose control over what is happening in your code