Show changelog after install npm package

[egoist]

Just searched npm and didn't find an exiting solution.

Basically you can call this module inside postinstall hook to display changelog for the new version.

{
  "scripts": {
    "postinstall": "show-changelog",
    // or maybe log level
    "postinstall": "show-changelog --level breaking"
  }
}

[Qix-]

Well the postinstall hook is going to be running in the root of the module directory, so just open the package.json in that directory and look at the name (I would guess). :)

[parro-it]

@prattheev , @Qix-, if you are sure you always call the module as an npm script, you can access the env variables defined by npm itself.

The one you need is npm_package_name

[Qix-]

TIL, thanks @parro-it :)

[parro-it]

You're welcome @Qix- 🙂

[Richienb]

@egoist I'll start working on this.

[CanRau]

That sounds useful 😃 maybe messy depending on how it's showing all the changelogs 😄

[Richienb]

@CanRau The package is probably only going to show the changelog of the current version to keep it tidy.

[vladimyr]

What's the value of showing changelog paths/contents on the first install? 🤔It is a fresh start and don't we expect they'll go and check the documentation for the version they are installing anyway?

Where should that script live? Should it be part of package/dependency scripts or consumer/application scripts?

The only useful scenario I could imagine is having already initialized project with a particular version of dependency and then bumping it to a newer one with appropriate changelog being presented. But that is pretty much what npm-check does.

Also, @prattheev actually did something: https://github.com/prattheev/whatsnew

[Richienb]

@vladimyr My perspective on the request is that it's bundled as a dependency for a package and is run on install to show the changelog.

[Richienb]

Minor roadblock: There isn't a complete standard for writing CHANGELOG.md files so parsing them will be very hard.

[vladimyr]

This is exactly why you shouldn't try to parse and render them in the terminal but show links to them instead.
Also, I would advise you against showing stuff on every install because people tend to have pretty strong and negative feelings to nonessential and unrequested stuff popping up in their terminals.

[Richienb]

@vladimyr In that case, we can probably detect for when the module is updated and only show it then.

[theoludwig]

I think it would be better if it is something that npm could handle itself behind a flag option, rather than a npm package.