How do you create a console app that you can run by a name instead of using node and a .js file to start the app?
Instead of... $ node myapp.js --out ./folder/
Can I... $ myapp --out ./folder/
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Possible duplicate of [Is it possible to run Node.js scripts without invoking \`node\`?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4806571/is-it-possible-to-run-node-js-scripts-without-invoking-node). Question info applies to all Unices, not just OS X. – Álvaro González May 12 '14 at 15:06
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You can use the bin option in your package.json file to make your script executable. From the documentation for package.json:
A lot of packages have one or more executable files that they'd like to install into the PATH. npm makes this pretty easy (in fact, it uses this feature to install the "npm" executable.)
To use this, supply a bin field in your package.json which is a map of command name to local file name. On install, npm will symlink that file into prefix/bin for global installs, or ./node_modules/.bin/ for local installs.
Click the link and search for bin: https://www.npmjs.org/doc/json.html for more info.
Brian Glaz
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I suppose this allows to distribute your script. It doesn't help to create it. – Álvaro González May 12 '14 at 15:04
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what do you mean? If you specify the `bin` option, you can run npm install and then it will copy it into your PATH – Brian Glaz May 12 '14 at 15:06
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Do you mean that `npm` will automatically create the file for the `bin` directory? – Álvaro González May 12 '14 at 15:11
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Yes, that's how it works. It will create a symlink inside `bin`. Refer to that link for more info. – Brian Glaz May 12 '14 at 15:15