jinks-cli

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jinks package [dir] ​

Package a Jinks-generated application into an installable .xar. Prefers the application's own build tooling if available, but will fall back to a simple packager if not.

bash
jinks package
jinks package ./my-app

The archive is written to build/<abbrev>-<version>.xar, where abbrev and version are read from expath-pkg.xml. jinks xar is an alias for the same command.

Build strategy ​

The command picks the first strategy that applies, and reports which one it used:

  1. npm run build — when the directory ships a build.cjs and a build script in its package.json. This runs the application's own build exactly as a release would.
  2. Apache Ant — when ant is on the PATH and runs (ant -version succeeds). Runs the default all target from build.xml.
  3. Built-in packager — a pure-Node fallback (no Java/Ant required) that reproduces the default build: it zips the application directory minus a set of development and build files (see below).

All three write the same build/<abbrev>-<version>.xar; the built-in packager is described under Ignored paths below.

When both the npm build and Apache Ant are viable, the command asks which one to use. With --quiet (non-interactive) it does not prompt and uses the npm build.

Arguments ​

  • [dir] — Application directory to package. Defaults to the current working directory.

Ignored paths ​

The built-in packager reads a list of path patterns to ignore from a .existdb.json file if present in the directory. The patterns are read from the sync.ignore array. A minimal .existdb.json that excludes a couple of extra paths looks like this:

json
{
  "sync": {
    "ignore": [
      "drafts/**",
      "**/*.bak",
      "notes.md"
    ]
  }
}

Each entry is a glob (matched against the path relative to the app root); non-string or empty entries are ignored. Any other keys in .existdb.json (such as eXist connection settings) are left untouched — only sync.ignore affects packaging.

Built-in defaults exclude, among others: build/, node_modules/, .git/, .github/, .vscode/, .idea/, .devcontainer/, *.tmpl, *.properties, build.xml, README.md, package*.json, .existdb.json, gulpfile.js, Cypress screenshots/videos, *.xar, and .DS_Store.

Options ​

  • -o, --output <file> — Output .xar path. Defaults to build/<abbrev>-<version>.xar.
  • -q, --quiet — Do not print the banner.

Examples ​

Package the current directory:

bash
jinks package

Package a specific application to a custom location:

bash
jinks package ./my-tei-app --output ./dist/my-tei-app.xar

The resulting .xar can be installed through eXist-db's package manager, exactly like the archive produced by the Ant build.xml.