Meteorite is a Meteor version manager and package manager. It provides an easy way to run different versions of meteor, use non-core packages, and to install packages from the Atmosphere package repository.
Meteorite provides the mrt
that can be used to add and install smart packages from atmosphere.
# Create an app based on Meteor's devel branch.
$ mrt create my-app --branch devel
$ cd my-app
# Install an Atmosphere package, recursively fetching dependencies.
$ mrt add router
# Check for and install any updates, and run the app.
$ mrt
Meteorite can be installed via npm.
$ npm install -g meteorite
If your system requires root access to install global npm packages, make sure you use the -H
flag:
$ sudo -H npm install -g meteorite
Meteorite now symlinks packages into the packages/
directory of your app, so it's no longer necessary to run mrt
when you want to start a server. Just make sure you mrt install
in your app, and delete the "meteor"
section from your smart.json
.
Subsequently, you can simply use meteor
to run your development server, and just mrt install
to ensure all packages are installed from atmosphere.
-
Meteor is not officially supported on windows; you can run it thanks to Tom Wijman's excellent work. However, meteorite's git based approach runs counter to the MSI installation that's required to get it working. So meteorite does not work under windows right now. Pull Requests which change this would be gladly accepted! Also, see this blog post for some information about how to use it.
-
You'll also need to ensure you have git installed and available in your path. Also, you'll need to make sure that
mrt
's install location (usually/usr/local/bin/
) is on your path.
Works like meteor add
, but if the package isn't one of Meteor's included packages, it installs it from Atmosphere.
Unlike meteor add
, only one package can be added at a time with mrt add
.
# Add the latest version of the moment package on Atmosphere.
$ mrt add moment
# Add a specific version of a package.
$ mrt add router --version 0.3.4
# Meteorite will install page.js too, because router depends on it.
Install all packages listed in smart.json
that aren't already installed on your machine. Use this command if you are working collaboratively and your colleagues install new packages.
Installs any available updates to the app's desired Meteor version and packages.
As Meteorite now installs packages into the packages/
directory, you can simply run meteor
to start your app. You may need to run mrt install
first.
You can run any meteor executable you like (e.g. from a checkout somewhere on your machine).
Works like meteor
, but checks and installs the app's desired Meteor version and package dependencies before running the app. You may still want to use this, but it's no longer the official way to use Meteorite.
If however you want to use a forked version of Meteor in your project, you can still list it in your smart.json
, and Meteorite will run it via mrt
. (Of course you could just run it directly from a checkout too, which may be simpler).
Works like meteor create
, but you can specify the desired branch, tag or reference of Meteor's git repository that the app should be based on.
# By default, apps are based on Meteor's master branch.
$ mrt create cool-app
# You can create apps based on a branch of Meteor's repo.
$ mrt create risky-app --branch devel
# Or, on a tag (such as version numbers).
$ mrt create safe-app --tag v0.5.4
# Or, or on a commit.
$ mrt create choosy-app --ref a9a717
When Meteorite is executed for an app, it checks or installs the app's desired Meteor version, packages and dependencies, then does the required book-keeping (described below), and finally passes the command onto meteor
.
It is not required that you run sudo mrt
. If you do so, your home directory will pick up some root-owned files and you'll struggle to run mrt
without sudo
from then on. This isn't good.
To fix the problem, try cleaning up potentially "sudo-ed" files:
sudo mrt uninstall
sudo mrt uninstall --system
sudo chown -R `whoami` ~/.npm
If possible, try not to install Meteorite as root either. If you have permissions problems, make sure you install with sudo -H npm install -g meteorite
. If you've installed without -H
, your ~/.npm
directory will be owned by root and you should run the chown
command above to fix it.
Apps tell Meteorite the Meteor version and packages they want with a file called smart.json
in their root directory. Meteorite will install those dependencies the next time it is executed within that app.
Meteorite writes to a smart.lock
file in the app's root directory to track the exact versions of its dependencies, even when it's set up in a fresh environment. You should check the smart.lock
file into your app's version control, to ensure that other developers are running the same versions of the dependencies. Any changes in smart.json
take precendency over smart.lock
. The smart.lock
file is reset with the mrt update
command.
The meteor
property is not required: apps will depend on Meteor's master branch by default. You can specify meteor.branch
, meteor.tag
or meteor.git
to use alternate branches, tags and forks respectively. Note that meteor.git
expects an actual URL, use ssh://[email protected]/meteor/meteor.git
instead of [email protected]:meteor/meteor.git
.
{
"meteor": {
"tag": "v0.5.4"
},
"packages": {
"moment": {},
"router": "0.3.4",
"roles": {
"version": "1.0.1"
},
"accounts-persona": {
"git": "https://github.com/vladikoff/meteor-accounts-persona"
},
"normalize.css": {
"git": "https://github.com/rithis/meteor-normalize.css",
"tag": "v2.0.1"
},
"my-experiment": {
"path": "/path/to/local/package"
}
}
}
Meteorite packages include a smart.json
file in their root directory to provide information about the package, and to list their dependencies. For an example, see Meteor Router's smart.json
.
Meteorite packages also include a package.js
file in their root directory to tell Meteorite how it should be installed. For an example, see Meteor Roles' package.js
.
See Atmosphere's documentation on writing packages for more information.
Use Meteorite's bash completion by sourcing it in your .bashrc or .bash_profile.
Depending on where you installed Meteorite:
if [ -f /path/to/meteorite/completions/mrt.bash ]; then
. /path/to/meteorite/completions/mrt.bash
fi
Alternatively, you can create a symbolic link under bash_completion.d:
ln -s /path/to/meteorite/completions/mrt.bash /path/to/bash_completion.d/mrt
Contributions to meteorite are very welcome! Please see the Contribution Guide for details.