Sequential & Parallel execution of npm scripts

NPM is not just a package manager for Javascript projects, it also helps setup tooling around the codebase. For the day to day work, we just write our code in separate files, and usually there is a separate toolchain that helps lint, transpile, test, and bundle our work. The majority of us handle all of this using npm-scripts.

One of the most common use-case is having these scripts run in sequential or parallel execution mode.

To explain, let's take a common example of scripts that outlines some of these tasks.

bash

"scripts": {
    "lint:css": "csslint",
    "lint:js": "eslint",
    "cleanup": "rm -rf dist/",
    "bundle": "browserify main.js"
}

we can run the lint:css & lint:js in parallel execution since they do not interfere with each other
to build the bundles, we would need to cleanup the dist folder first. Hence we need sequential execution here.

Here are some common ways to achieve the same.

Using npm lifecycle hooks

Every script in npm runs three separate scripts under the hood. A pre<script>, the <script> itself and a post<script>. Those two additional scripts are run, as their names imply, before and after the main script. You can find more details in here.

bash

"scripts": {
    "lint:css": "csslint",
    "lint:js": "eslint",

    "prebuild": "rm -rf dist/",
    "build": "browserify main.js",
    "postbuild": "rm -rf tmp"
}

Running npm run build will run the prebuild command first and upon completion, will run postbuild.

Using the built-in OS shell capabilities

Because npm scripts are spawning a shell process under the hood, we can use its syntax to achieve what we need. We can provide & for running in parallel and && for running in series.

bash

"scripts": {
    "lint:css": "csslint",
    "lint:js": "eslint",
    "cleanup": "rm -rf dist/",
    "bundle": "browserify main.js",

    "lint": "npm run lint:js & npm run lint:css", # parallel execution
    "build": "npm run cleanup && npm run bundle" # sequential execution
}

Issues with this approach

& syntax creates a subprocess, and we do not get better process handling. This results in the original npm process not being able to tell whether it already finishes or not. When you have long-running scripts, this could be problematic.
Windows environment doesn't support &

Concurrently

Concurrently helps run multiple commands - concurrently. The docs explain a lot of other cool features it has.

bash

"scripts": {
    "lint:css": "csslint",
    "lint:js": "eslint",
    "cleanup": "rm -rf dist/",
    "bundle": "browserify main.js"

    "lint": "concurrently 'npm run lint:js' 'npm run lint:css' --kill-others"
    "lint": "npm:lint-*" # shorthand version
}

As shown, we just pass a list of scripts to concurrently and it ensures to run them in all environments. The --kill-others argument kills other processes if one exits or dies.

npm-run-all

npm-run-all provides CLI tools to run multiple npm-scripts in parallel or sequential.

bash

"scripts": {
    "lint:css": "csslint",
    "lint:js": "eslint",
    "cleanup": "rm -rf dist/",
    "bundle": "browserify main.js"

    "lint": "npm-run-all --parallel lint:js lint:css"
    "build": "npm-run-all cleanup bundle"
}

Other npm-script tips

Since we are on a subject of npm scripts, here is a list of things that I have discovered and found useful.

Always consider windows environment

Always pay attention to whether the commands you are writing are environment friendly. Some of them may not run in windows.

& doesn't work in windows terminal
Use rimraf package in case of rm -rf for cross env support.
Setting environment variables using cross-env

npm scripts auto-complete

There is no common convention on the scripts we have. Some projects use npm run dev other use npm run start. Hence it could take a while to build muscle memory to learn all the available scrips. A better alternative is to enable npm scripts completion in your terminal.