dev

dev requires shell integration.

pkgx integrate --dry-run

dev is a tool for utilizing developer environments. It is built on top of pkgx and the pkgx pkging primitives and automatically determines the packages you need based on your project’s keyfiles.

Getting Started

dev requires pkgx to be integrated with your shell.

pkgx integrate

Activating dev Environments

$ node --version
command not found: node

$ ls
package.json …

$ dev
found package.json; adding `node` to the environment
(+node) $ node --version
v20.5.0

Because there’s a package.json we know you want node.

If there’s a .node-version file we read that:

$ cat .node-version
v18

$ dev

(+node=18.16) $ node --version
v18.16.0

We understand almost all keyfile conventions. If we don’t understand one you use let us know and we’ll add it.

The environment is only active while your terminal is inside that directory.

This is persisted across terminal sessions.

If you want to disable this behavior, deactivate it inside the project directory:

(+node) $ dev off

We even add version control systems like git, svn and hg.

Because we read the keyfiles of different project types, use of dev is entirely optional for your users and coworkers. They can either use dev, manually construct the environment with pkgx or source their deps themselves.

Customizing the Environment

Projects require specific versions. To facilitate this we allow you to supplement the project files that indicate tooling. For example in a package.json file:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "dependencies": […],
  "pkgx": "node@16.20.1 imagemagick optipng@0"
}

In files that support comments we use YAML front matter:

# pyproject.toml

#---
# pkgx:
#   python@3.10
#---

Our preference is comments, JSON doesn’t support comments so we have to stick a pkgx node in there.

We read all the files in your project, but only at the root level. If you move up a level and it has its own environment you will need to activate that separately.

Overriding Defaults

Multiple projects can read package.json. If you want to use bun rather than node just specify that in your package.json (or pkgx.yaml):

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "dependencies": […],
  "pkgx": "bun@0.5"
  }
}

pkgx.yaml

We supplement the existing files to be less intrusive, but if you prefer you can instead add a pkgx.yaml (or .pkgx.yaml) file to your repo.

The format is the same as that of YAML front matter, thus for example:

dependencies:
  python@3.10 node@16.20.1
env:
  FOO: bar

Controlling Shell Environment Variables

It can be convenient to control shell environment variables for work projects.

$ cat pyproject.toml

#---
# dependencies:
#   deno@1.35
# env:
#   DENO_DIR: ./deno
#   VERSION: 1.2.3
#---

$ dev

(+deno+python) $ echo $VERSION
1.2.3

You can either prefix the YAML with a root pkgx node as above or drop that considering our metadata is universal this seems acceptable, but using a pkgx root is safer. If you use a pkgx and you only have deps you can specify just the deps. We support specification as strings, arrays or dictionaries so pick the one that feels right to you.

Adding New Dependencies to an Activated Developer Environment

Edit the relevant files and cd . to trigger the environment to reload.

Using Activated Environments in Editors

Generally programmer editors should see tools if the environments are activated. If no, let us know and we’ll fix it.

Deactivating dev

$ dev off