github-desktop/docs/contributing/working-with-packages.md

Working with Packages

As we are using yarn for managing packages, here are some helpful tips for whenever you need to work with them.

Install packages

To ensure you have the right version of dependencies, run this command after cloning or switching branches.

> yarn

This will restore the versions stored in the lock file to the node_modules folder.

Add new packages

Rather than updating the package.json explicitly, you can install new dependencies via the yarn command line:

# adds the package to the dependencies list
> yarn add [package-name]
# adds the package to the devDependencies list
> yarn add [package-name] --dev

Updating packages

To see which packages have newer versions available:

> yarn outdated

To upgrade a package to its latest version:

> yarn upgrade --latest [package-name]

To upgrade a package to a specific version (or version range):

> yarn upgrade [package-name]@[version]

Removing packages

To remove any packages that are no longer needed:

> yarn remove [package-name]

Upgrading Yarn

Desktop uses a local version of yarn to ensure one version is used on all platforms that we develop on. To upgrade Desktop to the latest version of yarn:

• download the yarn-x-y.z.js file from the latest release on GitHub
• add it to the root vendor folder on disk
• remove any previous version
• edit .yarnrc to use this new version (ensuring the x.y.z matches the version you just downloaded)

# THIS IS AN AUTOGENERATED FILE. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY.
# yarn lockfile v1

yarn-path "./vendor/yarn-x.y.z.js"

• edit app/.yarnrc to use this new version (ensuring the x.y.z matches the version you just downloaded)

# THIS IS AN AUTOGENERATED FILE. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY.
# yarn lockfile v1

yarn-path "../vendor/yarn-x.y.z.js"

• Commit these changes and open a pull request to get them reviewed