Self-Hosted NDNts Nightly Build

NDNts nightly build is a set of NPM-compatible tarballs compiled automatically from the development branch of NDNts, Named Data Networking (NDN) libraries for the modern web, distributed on https://ndnts-nightly.ndn.today website. Users can install NDNts nightly build following these instructions.

However, this website only stores the latest version of NDNts packages. This has been causing installation conflicts when NPM tries to look for previous versions. Moreover, as I have declared, I don't care much about backwards compatibility. With NPM, all published versions are stored indefinitely, so you can continue using an older version without being affected by breaking changes. On the other hand, once a new nightly build is uploaded, the previous version is overwritten and no longer available for downloads. You are then forced to cope with the breaking changes I introduce from time to time, possibly at higher frequency than you would like to.

Today, I'm introducing two methods for self-hosting NDNts nightly build. Both methods allow you to build a specific version of NDNts codebase from a checkout of the NDNts monorepo, and generate a set of tarballs that you can host locally on a server under your control. Afterwards, you can install NDNts packages from this server, without relying on my website and without being affected by my breaking changes.

Self-Hosted NDNts on an HTTP Server

This section was latest updated on 2024-03-06 to reflect latest changes.

The following steps allow you to create and host tarballs of one specific version of NDNts.

# clone NDNts monorepo
git clone https://github.com/yoursunny/NDNts.git
# you may checkout a specific branch / commit

# install dependencies
corepack pnpm install

# you can make code changes; you should commit these changes but you do not have to push

# compile TypeScript into JavaScript
corepack pnpm build

# generate packages
NDNTS_PUBLISH_URI=http://localhost:8000 bash mk/publish-nightly.sh

# start a webserver
cd mk/nightly-output
python3 -m http.server

You can then access this website at http://localhost:8000. It would be similar as https://ndnts-nightly.ndn.today.

You are able to control when to upgrade the NDNts packages on this webserver to a new version, but when you upgrade, the same caveats of NDNts nightly build apply.

Self-Hosted NDNts on a Private NPM Registry

This section is outdated as of 2024-03-06.

It is also possible to build and publish NDNts into a self-hosted NPM registry. Multiple versions of NDNts can be stored in the private NPM registry, and you can switch between them without causing conflicts. We will be using Verdaccio, a lightweight open source private NPM proxy registry.

# install Verdaccio
npm install -g verdaccio
# for localhost usage, it is unnecessary to change any configuration
# please read Verdaccio documentation on how to securely deploy it on a server
# in particular, you should setup HTTPS and restrict package publishing to admins

# start Verdaccio
verdaccio

# execute the next steps in another console window

# backup existing .npmrc file
[[ -f ~/.npmrc ]] && mv ~/.npmrc ~/npmrc-backup

# select Verdaccio registry
npm set registry http://localhost:4873

# create an account on Verdaccio
# you can use any username, password, and email address
npm login

# clone NDNts monorepo
git clone https://github.com/yoursunny/NDNts.git
# you may checkout a specific branch / commit

# install dependencies
npm run bootstrap

# you can make code changes; you should commit these changes but you do not have to push

# build and publish NDNts
bash mk/publish-release.sh -alpha.1
# the published version number is the last commit date plus the specified version suffix
# if last commit was made on 2021-01-02, this command would create version 0.0.20210102-alpha.1
# if you publish more than once on the same day, you must provide a different version suffix

# (optional) revert the git commit generated for the version
git reset --hard HEAD^1

# restore original .npmrc file
[[ -f ~/npmrc-backup ]] && mv ~/npmrc-backup ~/.npmrc

The published packages are stored in $HOME/.config/verdaccio directory. You'll notice that Verdaccio is also storing other NPM packages here, because it is a caching registry. You may delete those packages after stopping Verdaccio, and only keep the @ndn directory.

Then, you can install NDNts packages from this private NPM registry:

# select Verdaccio for @ndn scope only
npm config set @ndn:registry http://localhost:4873

# install a package, such as @ndn/packet
npm install @ndn/packet

# check package version
jq '.dependencies["@ndn/packet"]' package.json
# you should see the version you published earlier