Automate npm and bower install with grunt

Question

I have a node / angular project that uses npm for backend dependency management and bower for frontend dependency management. I'd like to use a grunt task to do both install commands. I haven't been able to figure out how to do it.

I made an attempt using exec, but it doesn't actually install anything.

module.exports = function(grunt) {      grunt.registerTask('install', 'install the backend and frontend dependencies', function() {         // adapted from http://www.dzone.com/snippets/execute-unix-command-nodejs         var exec = require('child_process').exec,             sys  = require('sys');          function puts(error, stdout, stderr) { console.log(stdout); sys.puts(stdout) }          // assuming this command is run from the root of the repo         exec('bower install', {cwd: './frontend'}, puts);     });  }; 

When I cd into frontend, open up node, and run this code from the console, this works fine. What am I doing wrong in the grunt task?

(I also tried to use the bower and npm APIs, but couldn't make that work either.)

Answer 1

To install client side components during npm install at the same time than server side libs, you can add in your package.json

"dependencies": {     ...     "bower" : "" }, "scripts": {     ...     "postinstall" : "bower install" } 

I prefer to make the difference between install and test/build

Answer 2

You need to tell grunt that you're using an async method (.exec) by calling the this.async() method, getting a callback, and calling that when exec is done.

This should work:

module.exports = function(grunt) {     grunt.registerTask('install', 'install the backend and frontend dependencies', function() {         var exec = require('child_process').exec;         var cb = this.async();         exec('bower install', {cwd: './frontend'}, function(err, stdout, stderr) {             console.log(stdout);             cb();         });     }); }; 

See Why doesn't my asynchronous task complete?