With use of the bin-gem-node annex you can install Ruby Gems and Node modules in an interesting way:
- they’ll be installed in the plugin’s or snippet’s directory,
- an automatic function will be provided to run the binary that’s provided by the package.
This has several benefits. For example, no $PATH alteration is required in the
.zprofile file. Also, the package will be automatically updated on zinit
update. Plus, the installation will be isolated from other packages – multiple
packages not be put in a single place.
An example Zinit invocation that installs the remark tool that can be used
to convert Markdown documents into man pages:
zinit ice wait'2' lucid id-as'remark' node'remark <- !remark-cli; remark-man'
zinit snippet /dev/null
It is snippet-based. An example plugin-based invocation:
zinit ice wait'2' lucid id-as'remark' node'remark <- !remark-cli; remark-man'
zinit load zdharma-continuum/null
It has an advantage – it will delete the remark function when unloading the
plugin.
The exclamation-mark before !remark-cli is important – it causes the automatic
function invoking the binary to be created. More information can be found on the
bin-gem-node annex page.
The command installs 2 node modules – remark-cli and remark-man (the backend
for the remark converter – remark can convert also to other formats). By
using the exclamation-mark and the <- pointer it also requests the function
that will run the remark binary to be created. The function has the following
body:
remark () {
local bindir="/root/.zinit/plugins/remark/node_modules/.bin"
local -x NODE_PATH="/root/.zinit/plugins/remark2"/node_modules
"$bindir"/"remark" "$@"
}
As it can be seen it ultimately provides the remark tool to the command line.