Just Scripting the Node

For commonly used frameworks and libraries, it's reasonable to install them as global package and only link them in project directory. This could be achieved through the npm link command¹. e.g. take express as example,

npm install -g express
cd /path/to/my-project
npm link express

The npm link <package-name> command will create a symbolic link under /path/to/my-project/node_modules to global package.

This command could also be used the other way around: i.e. a symlink created with global prefix² that points to current project directory. This comes in handy when we want to test a dependent package continuously.

If a node application could is run with the --insepct series flags enabled, then it could be debugged in Chrome like usual web application through URL chrome://inspect. See the Node documentation on debugging³ for more info. Some flags are listed here for reference:

• --inspect
• --inspect-brk
• --inspect-wait

As for different frameworks, there are usually two approahces:

• Check the script that is actually being run and attach --inspect flag manually, or
• Leverage the flag provided by the framework for debugging.

As for the second approach, take NestJS for example, it provides --debug along with --watch⁴ for a smooth debugging experience.