# npm-which
### Locate a program or locally installed node module executable
[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/timoxley/npm-which.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/timoxley/npm-which)
Use `npm-which` to locate executables which may be installed in the
local 'node_modules/.bin', or in a parent 'node_modules/.bin' directory.
`npm-which` runs in the context of an npm lifecycle script with its npm-modified PATH.
i.e. if you install a module that has an executable script using npm install, that module's executable will be picked up by `npm-which` from anywhere in the ./node_modules tree.
## Installation
```bash
> npm install -g npm-which
```
## Usage
### Programmatic
`npm-which` will find executables relative to the cwd you supply.
The cwd is required in order to be explicit and reduce confusion when
things that should be found are not.
#### Asynchronous
```js
var which = require('npm-which')(process.cwd()) // remember to supply cwd
which('tape', function(err, pathToTape) {
if (err) return console.error(err.message)
console.log(pathToTape) // /Users/.../node_modules/.bin/tape
})
```
#### Synchronous
```js
var which = require('npm-which')(__dirname) // __dirname often good enough
var pathToTape = which.sync('tape')
console.log(pathToTape) // /Users/.../node_modules/.bin/tape
```
#### Options
Both async and sync versions take an optional options object:
* Set `options.env` if you wish to use something other than `process.env` (the default)
* Set `options.cwd` to supply the cwd as a named argument. Mainly for semi-backwards compatibility with npm-which 1.0.0.
```js
which('tape', {cwd: '/some/other/path'}, function() {
// ...
})
```
### Command Line
```bash
> npm-which tape
/Users/timoxley/Projects/npm-which/node_modules/.bin/tape
```
This is the equivalent of running an npm script with the body: `which tape`.
### Example
```bash
# unless something is installed in a node_modules
# npm-which and which(1) will have the same output:
> which tape
/usr/local/bin/tape
> npm-which tape
/usr/local/bin/tape
# install tape local to current dir
# tape includes an executable 'tape'
> npm install tape
> ./node_modules/.bin/tape && echo 'found'
found
# vanilla which(1) still finds global tape
> which tape
/usr/local/bin/tape
# npm-which finds locally installed tape :)
> npm-which tape
/Users/timoxley/Projects/npm-which/node_modules/.bin/tape
```
## Why
#### npm is slow to boot
* Shelling out to `npm bin` is very slow; it has to wait for all of npm to boot up – this often takes longer than the actual script you want to execute!
#### Hard-coding paths to modules is very fragile
* You can't rely on './node_modules' actually containing your module! The module may exist much higher in the directory hierarchy.
* `npm bin` returns the location of the `./node_modules/.bin` directory, but it does not take into account being called within the context of another module, also, npm slow.
* If the module does exist in a parent directory, then './node_modules/.bin' will be missing your module's executable.
## License
MIT