How can I read the version at runtime?

[justinmchase]

The file is stored in the repo but I can't "import" it because its not a typescript file, and its not stored locally unless its imported... How can I read it at runtime?

Perhaps the version should be a .ts file? Maybe you could generate this?

// VERSION.ts
export const VERSION = "1.0.0"

I can't think of why a simple text file would be more useful than this. In the version script instead of reading the file you could then import it with const { VERSION } = import('./VERSION.ts'). I don't think you even need the --allow-read flag for that, I'm not sure though.

[dylanpyle]

The simple cheeky answer here is:

const version = await Deno.readTextFile('VERSION');

But this is an interesting point — part of my original motivation here was to avoid some complicated/opinionated system like package.json, but agreed that a text file isn't super convenient at runtime (especially since you do need additional permissions to read it as you pointed out).

I'm leaning towards "I'd like to keep it a text file by default", especially since picking TypeScript makes it inconvenient in non-TS projects (which I actually already use this in!), but I could definitely get down with a flag like --format=ts to switch between different options.

Going to leave this open with the "help wanted" label, as I probably won't get to it in the short term, but I'll keep this in mind.

[justinmchase]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. You're right it is that simple for an app :)

But I mean if I'm publishing a library and someone imports my library via ESM then this version file will not necessarily be pulled down to the local file system and it certainly wouldn't be relative to the local directory. Now they'll be using tags to get the right version but if for some reason I wanted to report or print out my version at runtime then there is no way for my running code be able to get access to that file at runtime once imported.

[justinmchase]

I'm now thinking I can use the local files relative path to resolve the version file path, even when loaded via a URL and then just do Deno.readTextFile(url) ? I'm not totally sure how to get that path or if that readTextFile will work with urls but maybe it will work.

[jaredkrinke]

One advantage to having the version be a JavaScript (or TypeScript) file is that you can import it without having to specify any permissions on the command line.

For example, I have a tool that just transforms from standard input and writes to standard output, precisely so that it doesn't require any non-default permissions. But I'd still like to support a --version flag without duplicating my version string in code.

Consider this my +1 :)

[jaredkrinke]

I'm now thinking I can use the local files relative path to resolve the version file path, even when loaded via a URL and then just do Deno.readTextFile(url) ? I'm not totally sure how to get that path or if that readTextFile will work with urls but maybe it will work.

FYI @justinmchase I think this is what you're looking for:

const version = await Deno.readTextFile(new URL("VERSION", import.meta.url));

The catch, of course, is that you need either --allow-read if your module's in the file system or --allow-net when loading from deno.land.

[justinmchase]

version get was implemented!

[dylanpyle]

@justinmchase If it's cool with you, I'd like to leave this one open — I think your original suggestion here (allow reading the version file without needing additional permissions, e.g. to shell out to this tool or read a file) is totally valid and doesn't exist just yet. LMK if i'm misunderstanding!

[justinmchase]

Ok yeah, I didn't properly re-read this task when I closed it. Agreed.

[dotellie]

Hey all! Stumbled upon this and wanted to use the version number in a deno compile binary, so I whipped up a PR to add support for a VERSION.ts file. Hopefully that's a decent direction to take this in 😊 #22