[Pkg-javascript-devel] packaging npm dependency graphs

[Daniel Pocock]

There are more and more interesting projects using npm and related
technologies like grunt and browserify

browserify is a heavy user of npm dependencies itself[1]

One idea that I had is that we could run some service (maybe using the
URL http://npm.debian.net) to:

a) automatically clone all the Git repositories for packages on
https://www.npmjs.com/
b) create a debian branch in each cloned repository
c) use a tool such as npm2debian[2] to create the debian/* artifacts and
commit them on the branch
d) publish all such generated packages in an unofficial apt repository
e) (optional) upload each package to mentors.debian.net for visual review

This would allow people to test the dependency graphs more quickly
before they do the more tedious effort of making sure each source
package is DFSG compatible, building debian/copyright and uploading it
to NEW.

Last year we investigated similar strategies for Java / Maven dependency
graphs, this was Andrew Schurman's GSoC project[3].  There is probably
some overlap in some of the automation that is required to do this at scale.

Has anybody else had similar thoughts?

Are there similar projects already?

1. http://bugs.debian.org/780357

2. https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm2debian

3. https://github.com/arcticwaters/dependency-builder