[Node][] is a server-side [JavaScript][] engine (i.e. it executes
JavaScript without using a browser).  This means that JavaScript
developers can now develop tools in their native language, so it's not
a surprise that the [Bootstrap][] folks use [Grunt][] for their build
system.  I'm new to the whole Node ecosystem, so here are my notes on
how it works.

Start off by installing [npm][], the Node package manager.  On Gentoo,
that's:

    # USE=npm emerge -av net-libs/nodejs

[Configure npm][npm-config] to make ["global"
installs][npm-folders-prefix] in your personal space:

    # npm config set prefix ~/.local/

Install the [Grunt][] command line interface for building
[Bootstrap][]:

    $ npm install -g grunt-cli

That installs the libraries under `~/.local/lib/node_modules` and
drops symlinks to binaries in `~/.local/bin` (which is [already in my
`PATH`][PATH] thanks to my [[dotfiles]]).

Clone Boostrap and [install it's
dependencies][bootstrap-dependencies]:

    $ git clone git://github.com/twbs/bootstrap.git
    $ cd bootstrap
    $ npm install

This looks in the local [package.json][] to extract a list of
dependencies, and [installs each of them][npm-folders] under
[node_modules][].  Node likes to isolate its packages, so every
dependency for a given package is installed underneath that package.
This leads to some crazy nesting:

    $ find node_modules/ -name graceful-fs
    node_modules/grunt/node_modules/glob/node_modules/graceful-fs
    node_modules/grunt/node_modules/rimraf/node_modules/graceful-fs
    node_modules/grunt-contrib-clean/node_modules/rimraf/node_modules/graceful-fs
    node_modules/grunt-contrib-qunit/node_modules/grunt-lib-phantomjs/node_modules/phantomjs/node_modules/rimraf/node_modules/graceful-fs
    node_modules/grunt-contrib-watch/node_modules/gaze/node_modules/globule/node_modules/glob/node_modules/graceful-fs

Sometimes the redundancy is due to different version requirements, but
sometimes the redundancy is just redundant :p.  Let's look with [npm
ls][npm-ls].

    $ npm ls graceful-fs
    bootstrap@3.0.0 /home/wking/src/bootstrap
    ├─┬ grunt@0.4.1
    │ ├─┬ glob@3.1.21
    │ │ └── graceful-fs@1.2.3
    │ └─┬ rimraf@2.0.3
    │   └── graceful-fs@1.1.14
    ├─┬ grunt-contrib-clean@0.5.0
    │ └─┬ rimraf@2.2.2
    │   └── graceful-fs@2.0.1
    ├─┬ grunt-contrib-qunit@0.2.2
    │ └─┬ grunt-lib-phantomjs@0.3.1
    │   └─┬ phantomjs@1.9.2-1
    │     └─┬ rimraf@2.0.3
    │       └── graceful-fs@1.1.14
    └─┬ grunt-contrib-watch@0.5.3
      └─┬ gaze@0.4.1
        └─┬ globule@0.1.0
          └─┬ glob@3.1.21
            └── graceful-fs@1.2.3

Regardless of on-disk duplication, Node [caches modules][caching] so a
given module only loads once.  If it really bothers you, you can
[avoid some duplicates by installing duplicated packages higher up in
the local tree][npm-folders-nesting]:

    $ rm -rf node_modules
    $ npm install graceful-fs@1.1.14
    $ npm install
    $ npm ls graceful-fs
    bootstrap@3.0.0 /home/wking/src/bootstrap
    ├── graceful-fs@1.1.14  extraneous
    ├─┬ grunt@0.4.1
    │ └─┬ glob@3.1.21
    │   └── graceful-fs@1.2.3 
    ├─┬ grunt-contrib-clean@0.5.0
    │ └─┬ rimraf@2.2.2
    │   └── graceful-fs@2.0.1 
    └─┬ grunt-contrib-watch@0.5.3
      └─┬ gaze@0.4.1
        └─┬ globule@0.1.0
          └─┬ glob@3.1.21
            └── graceful-fs@1.2.3 

This is probably not worth the trouble.

Now that we have Grunt and the Bootstrap dependencies, we can build
the distributed libraries:

    $ ~/src/node_modules/.bin/grunt dist
    Running "clean:dist" (clean) task
    Cleaning dist...OK

    Running "recess:bootstrap" (recess) task
    File "dist/css/bootstrap.css" created.

    Running "recess:min" (recess) task
    File "dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" created.
    Original: 121876 bytes.
    Minified: 99741 bytes.

    Running "recess:theme" (recess) task
    File "dist/css/bootstrap-theme.css" created.

    Running "recess:theme_min" (recess) task
    File "dist/css/bootstrap-theme.min.css" created.
    Original: 18956 bytes.
    Minified: 17003 bytes.

    Running "copy:fonts" (copy) task
    Copied 4 files

    Running "concat:bootstrap" (concat) task
    File "dist/js/bootstrap.js" created.

    Running "uglify:bootstrap" (uglify) task
    File "dist/js/bootstrap.min.js" created.
    Original: 58543 bytes.
    Minified: 27811 bytes.

    Done, without errors.

Wohoo!

Unfortunately, like all [language-specific][pypi] [packing][gem]
[systems][cpan], npm has trouble installing packages that aren't
written in its native language.  This means you get things like:

    $ ~/src/node_modules/.bin/grunt
    …
    Running "jekyll:docs" (jekyll) task
    `jekyll build` was initiated.

    Jekyll output:
    Warning: Command failed: /bin/sh: jekyll: command not found
     Use --force to continue.

    Aborted due to warnings.

Once everybody wises up and starts writing packages for [[Gentoo
Prefix|Gentoo_Prefix_overlay]], we can stop worrying about
installation and get back to work developing :p.

[[!tag tags/programming]]
[[!tag tags/tools]]
[[!tag tags/web]]

[Node]: http://nodejs.org/
[JavaScript]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript
[Bootstrap]: http://getbootstrap.com/
[Grunt]: http://gruntjs.com/
[npm]: https://npmjs.org/
[npm-folders]: https://npmjs.org/doc/files/npm-folders.html
[npm-folders-prefix]: https://npmjs.org/doc/files/npm-folders.html#prefix-Configuration
[npm-folders-nesting]: https://npmjs.org/doc/files/npm-folders.html#Cycles-Conflicts-and-Folder-Parsimony
[npm-config]: https://npmjs.org/doc/config.html
[PATH]: http://git.tremily.us/?p=dotfiles-public.git;a=blob;f=src/.bash_profile;hb=HEAD
[bootstrap-dependencies]: https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/blob/master/README.md#install-grunt
[package.json]: https://npmjs.org/doc/json.html
[node_modules]: http://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules_loading_from_node_modules_folders
[npm-ls]: https://npmjs.org/doc/cli/npm-ls.html
[caching]: http://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules_caching
[pypi]: https://pypi.python.org/pypi
[gem]: http://rubygems.org/
[cpan]: http://www.cpan.org/