dependency-cruiser command line interface

The command line interface is a straightforward affair - you pass it a bunch of files, and dependency-cruiser will start cruising them:

depcruise [options] <files-or-directories>

Below you'll find a list of command line options you can use, divided into ones that are only available as options on the command line and into those also available in dependency-cruiser configurations.

--do-not-follow: don't cruise modules adhering to this pattern any further
--include-only: only include modules satisfying a pattern
--focus: show modules and their direct neighbours
--collapse: summarize to folder depth or pattern
--exclude: exclude dependencies from being cruised
--max-depth
--progress: get feedback on what dependency-cruiser is doing while it's running
--prefix prefixing links
--module-systems
--ts-pre-compilation-deps (typescript only)
--ts-config: use a typescript configuration file ('project')
--webpack-config: use (the resolution options of) a webpack configuration`
--preserve-symlinks

Standalone formatting of dependency graphs: depcruise-fmt

Baseline dependencies: depcruise-baseline

Make GraphViz output more interactive: depcruise-wrap-stream-in-html

Command line only options

arguments - files and/ or directories

You can pass a bunch of files, directories and 'glob' patterns. dependency-cruiser will

resolve the glob patterns (if any) to files and directories
scan directories (if any) for files with supported extensions
add the passed files to that ... and start the cruise with the files thus found.

Cruising multiple files and directories in one go

Just pass them as arguments. This, e.g. will cruise every file in the folders src, test and lib (recursively) + the file called index.ts in the root.

depcruise --output-type dot src test lib index.ts

passing globs as parameters

dependency-cruiser uses node-glob to make sure globs work the same across platforms. It cannot prevent the environment from expanding globs before it can process it, however.

As each environment interprets globs slightly differently, a pattern like packages/**/src/**/*.js will yield different results.

To make sure glob expansion works exactly the same across platforms slap some quotes around them, so it's not the environment (/ shell) expanding the glob, but dependency-cruiser itself:

depcruise "packages/**/src/**/*.js"

`--output-type`: specify the output format

err

For use in build scripts, in combination with --config. It's also the default reporter. Sample use:

dependency-cruise --config my-depcruise-rules.json src

This will:

... print nothing and exit with code 0 if dependency-cruiser didn't find any violations of the rules in the configuration file (e.g. .dependency-cruiser.js or .dependency-cruiser.json).
... print the violating dependencies if there is any. Moreover it will exit with exit code number of violations with severity error found in the same fashion linters and test tools do.

See the depcruise target in the package.json for a real world example.

err-long

Similar to err, but in addition for each violation it emits the comment that went with the violated rule, so it's easier to put the rule into context (and if the comment contains that information: why the rule is there, and how to fix it). If you use dependency-cruiser in a lint-staged like setup, this might be a useful format,

dependency-cruise --output-type err-long --config my-depcruise-rules.json src

dot

Supplying dot as output type will make dependency-cruiser write a GraphViz dot format directed graph. Typical use is in concert with GraphViz dot (-T is the short form of --output-type:)

dependency-cruise -x "^node_modules" -T dot src | dot -T svg > dependencygraph.svg

You can customise the look of these graphs. See the theming and summarising sections in the options reference for details. You can also use depcruise-wrap-stream-in-html to make the graphs more interactive.

ddot - summarise on folder level

This reporter is experimental. It's likely to stay, but the way you configure it or how its output looks might change without major version bumping.

The ddot reporter is a variant on the dot output. It summarises modules on folder level. You can customise it with themes and filters just like you can the dot reporter output.

archi/ cdot

This reporter is experimental. It's likely to stay, but the way you configure it or how its output looks might change without major version bumping.

The archi is a variant on the dot output. The archi reporter can summarise (or 'collapse') dependencies to folders of your own choosing. Great if you want to have a high level overview of your app's dependencies.

By default it collapses to one folder below folders named node_modules, packages, src, lib and test, but you can pass your own patterns as well in the options.reporterOptions.archi section of your dependency-cruiser configuration.

See the summarising section in the options reference for details.

Sample output

flat/ fdot

Just like the archi/ ddot reporter, this one is experimental.

Also a variant on the dot output. Where all other graphical reporters group modules into the folders they reside in, this shows all modules on the same level. It is still possible to apply a theme, though.

Sample output

This flat graph of the report folder in dependency cruiser and all things it direct

As a comparison, this is the default dot report for the same folder(s)

err-html

Generates a stand-alone html report with:

a summary with files & dependencies cruised and the number of errors and warnings found
all rules, ordered by the number of violations (unviolated ones are hidden by default)
a list of all dependency and module violations, ordered by severity, rule name, from module, to module.

dependency-cruise --validate --output-type err-html -f dependency-report.html src test configs

html

Write it to html with a dependency matrix instead:

dependency-cruise -T html -f dependencies.html src

csv

If you supply csv it will write the dependency matrix to a comma separated file - so you can import it into a spreadsheet program and analyse from there.

teamcity

Write the output in TeamCity service message format.

E.g. to cruise src (using the .dependency-cruiser config) and emit TeamCity messages to stdout:

dependency-cruise -v -T teamcity  -- src

Sample output

##teamcity[inspectionType id='not-to-dev-dep' name='not-to-dev-dep' description='Don|'t allow dependencies from src/app/lib to a development only package' category='dependency-cruiser' flowId='8970869134' timestamp='2019-06-02T10:37:56.812']
##teamcity[inspectionType id='no-orphans' name='no-orphans' description='Modules without any incoming or outgoing dependencies are might indicate unused code.' category='dependency-cruiser' flowId='8970869134' timestamp='2019-06-02T10:37:56.812']
##teamcity[inspectionType id='not-to-unresolvable' name='not-to-unresolvable' description='' category='dependency-cruiser' flowId='8970869134' timestamp='2019-06-02T10:37:56.812']
##teamcity[inspection typeId='not-to-dev-dep' message='src/asneeze.js -> node_modules/eslint/lib/api.js' file='src/asneeze.js' SEVERITY='ERROR' flowId='8970869134' timestamp='2019-06-02T10:37:56.812']
##teamcity[inspection typeId='not-to-unresolvable' message='src/index.js -> ./medontexist.json' file='src/index.js' SEVERITY='ERROR' flowId='8970869134' timestamp='2019-06-02T10:37:56.812']
##teamcity[inspection typeId='not-to-dev-dep' message='src/index.js -> node_modules/dependency-cruiser/src/main/index.js' file='src/index.js' SEVERITY='ERROR' flowId='8970869134' timestamp='2019-06-02T10:37:56.812']
##teamcity[inspection typeId='not-to-dev-dep' message='src/index.js -> node_modules/eslint/lib/api.js' file='src/index.js' SEVERITY='ERROR' flowId='8970869134' timestamp='2019-06-02T10:37:56.812']
##teamcity[inspection typeId='no-orphans' message='src/orphan.js -> src/orphan.js' file='src/orphan.js' SEVERITY='ERROR' flowId='8970869134' timestamp='2019-06-02T10:37:56.812']

Just like the err reporter the TeamCity reporter has an empty output when there's no violations - and a non-zero exit code when there's errors.

text

This reporter makes a straight, flat dump of all dependencies found in a cruise. Useful for grepping.

dependency-cruise -T text --include-only src/report src/report

output

src/report/anon/anonymize-path-element.js → src/report/anon/random-string.js
src/report/anon/anonymize-path.js → src/report/anon/anonymize-path-element.js
src/report/anon/index.js → src/report/anon/anonymize-path.js
src/report/csv/index.js → src/report/utl/dependency-to-incidence-transformer.js
src/report/dot/index.js → src/report/dot/dot.template.js
src/report/dot/index.js → src/report/dot/module-utl.js
src/report/dot/index.js → src/report/dot/prepare-custom-level.js
src/report/dot/index.js → src/report/dot/prepare-folder-level.js
src/report/dot/index.js → src/report/dot/theming.js
src/report/dot/module-utl.js → src/report/dot/theming.js
src/report/dot/theming.js → src/report/dot/default-theme.json
src/report/dot/prepare-custom-level.js → src/report/utl/consolidate-to-pattern.js
src/report/dot/prepare-custom-level.js → src/report/dot/module-utl.js
src/report/utl/consolidate-to-pattern.js → src/report/utl/consolidate-module-dependencies.js
src/report/utl/consolidate-to-pattern.js → src/report/utl/consolidate-modules.js
src/report/utl/consolidate-module-dependencies.js → src/report/utl/compare-rules.js
src/report/utl/consolidate-modules.js → src/report/utl/compare-rules.js
src/report/dot/prepare-folder-level.js → src/report/utl/consolidate-to-folder.js
src/report/dot/prepare-folder-level.js → src/report/dot/module-utl.js
src/report/utl/consolidate-to-folder.js → src/report/utl/consolidate-module-dependencies.js
src/report/utl/consolidate-to-folder.js → src/report/utl/consolidate-modules.js
src/report/error-html/index.js → src/report/error-html/error-html.template.js
src/report/error-html/index.js → src/report/error-html/utl.js
src/report/html/index.js → src/report/utl/dependency-to-incidence-transformer.js
src/report/html/index.js → src/report/html/html.template.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/anon/index.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/csv/index.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/dot/index.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/error.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/error-html/index.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/html/index.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/identity.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/json.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/teamcity.js
src/report/index.js → src/report/text.js

... or to find everything connected to the meta module, in combination with grep:

dependency-cruise -v -T text src | grep transpile/meta.js

output

src/main/resolve-options/normalize.js → src/extract/transpile/meta.js
src/extract/transpile/meta.js → package.json
src/extract/transpile/meta.js → src/extract/transpile/coffeescript-wrap.js
src/extract/transpile/meta.js → src/extract/transpile/javascript-wrap.js
src/extract/transpile/meta.js → src/extract/transpile/livescript-wrap.js
src/extract/transpile/meta.js → src/extract/transpile/typescript-wrap.js
src/extract/transpile/meta.js → src/extract/transpile/vue-template-wrap.js
src/main/index.js → src/extract/transpile/meta.js
src/extract/transpile/index.js → src/extract/transpile/meta.js
src/extract/gather-initial-sources.js → src/extract/transpile/meta.js

json

This emits the internal representation of a cruise as json. It's the input format for depcruise-fmt, and is useful for debugging.

See output-format for more information

anon - obfuscated json

The same as json - but with all paths obfuscated. This enables you to share the result of a cruise for troubleshooting purposes without showing what the source code is about.

To save an anonymized dependency graph to anonymized-result.json do this:

depcruise --validate --output-type anon --output-to anonymized-result.json bin src

e.g. to save an anonymized graph into and svg:

depcruise --validate --output-type anon bin src | depcruise-fmt --output-type dot - | dot -T svg > anonymized_graph.svg

Sample output

Here's a part of dependency-cruiser's own dependency graph both original and obfuscated (after converting it to a graph via depcruise-fmt and dot - so it's easier to compare than the two json's):

Original

Obfuscated

How does the obfuscation work?

It uses the list of words you pass in options.reporterOptions.anon.wordlist to replace non-common path elements with (src/search/dragonfly-algorithm.js -> src/animal/announce.js, src/search/dragonfly-algorithm.spec.js -> src/animal/announce.spec.js).
(You can use any array of strings here - a good one is Sindre Sorhus' mnemonic-words, which you can simply require into the option if you're using JavaScript as the config file format):
```
...
options: {
  reporterOptions:
    anon: {
      wordlist: require('mnemonic-words')
    }
}
...
```
It will retain name similarities (like the announce.js/ announce.spec.js above).
When there's more path elements in your dependency graph than in the corpus the algorithm falls back to random strings that have the same length and pattern as the original one (secretService-record.ts -> fnwarqVboiuvq-pugnmh.ts).
The algorithm considers some patterns to be 'common'. It leaves those alone to retain some readability. 'Common' patterns include src, test, node_modules, ., index etc. You can find the full regexp in anonymize-path.js.
The algorithm obfuscates within node_modules is obfuscated as well, so it won't become apparent from the dependency graph which ones your app uses either.

baseline - generate known violations

Generates a list of all current violations you can use as input for the --ignore-known option.

`--config`/ `--validate`

Validates against a list of rules in a configuration file. This defaults to a file called .dependency-cruiser.js (/ .dependency-cruiser.cjs/ .dependency-cruiser.json), but you can specify your own rules file, which can be in json format or a valid node module returning a rules object literal.

dependency-cruise -x node_modules --config my.rules.json src spec

Tip: usually you don't need to specify the rules file. However if run depcruise --config src, src will be interpreted as the rules file. Which is probably is not what you want. To prevent this, place -- after the last option, like so:
dependency-cruise --config -- src

The configuration specifies a bunch of regular expressions pairs your dependencies should adhere tom as well as configuration options that tweak what is cruised and how.

A simple validation configuration that forbids modules in src to use stuff in the test folder and allows everything else:

{
  "forbidden": [
    {
      "from": { "path": "^src" },
      "to": { "path": "^test" }
    }
  ]
}

You can optionally specify a name and an error severity ('error', 'warn' (the default) and 'info') with them that will appear in some reporters:

{
  "forbidden": [
    {
      "name": "no-src-to-test",
      "severity": "error",
      "from": { "path": "^src" },
      "to": { "path": "^test" }
    }
  ]
}

For more information about writing rules see the tutorial and the rules-reference. For options check out the options reference.

For an easy set up of both use --init

`--init`

This asks some questions and - depending on the answers - creates a dependency-cruiser configuration with some useful rules to the current folder and exits.

The configuration file is larded with documentation to make it easy to tweak.

Use --config to have dependency-cruiser take the configuration file into account.

Some of the rules that will be in the configuration (either directly or from a preset):

Rule	Description
`no-circular`	flags all circular dependencies
`no-orphans`	flags orphan modules (except typescript `.d.ts` files)
`no-deprecated-core`	flags dependencies on deprecated node 'core' modules
`no-deprecated-npm`	flags dependencies on deprecated npm modules
`no-non-package-json`	flags (npm) dependencies that don't occur in package.json
`not-to-unresolvable`	flags dependencies that can't be resolved
`no-duplicate-dep-types`	flags dependencies that occur more than once in package.json
`not-to-test`	Don't allow dependencies from outside test folders to test folders
`not-to-spec`	Don't allow dependencies to (typescript/ JavaScript/ CoffeeScript) spec files
`not-to-dev-dep`	Don't allow dependencies from src/app/lib to a development only package
`optional-deps-used`	Inform about the use of 'optional' dependencies (so you can ensure their imports a are sufficiently managed)
`peer-deps-used`	Warn about the use of a peer dependency (they might be OK for you, but it's not typical you have them).
`no-duplicate-dep-types`	Warn if a dependency occurs in your package.json more than once (technically: has more than one dependency type)

`--info` showing what alt-js are supported

Which alt-js languages dependency-cruiser supports depends on the availability it has to them. To see how dependency-cruiser perceives its environment use depcruise --info (any arguments are ignored).

Typical output

Supported:

  If you need a supported, but not enabled transpiler ('✖' below), just install
  it in the same folder dependency-cruiser is installed. E.g. 'npm i livescript'
  will enable livescript support if it's installed in your project folder.

Transpilers:

  ✔ javascript (>es1)
  ✔ coffee-script (>=1.0.0 <2.0.0)
  ✔ coffeescript (>=1.0.0 <3.0.0)
  ✖ livescript (>=1.0.0 <2.0.0)
  ✔ typescript (>=2.0.0 <4.0.0)

Extensions:

  ✔ .js
  ✔ .mjs
  ✔ .jsx
  ✔ .vue
  ✔ .ts
  ✔ .tsx
  ✔ .d.ts
  ✖ .ls
  ✔ .coffee
  ✔ .litcoffee
  ✔ .coffee.md
  ✔ .csx
  ✔ .cjsx

`--ignore-known`: ignore known violations

This feature was recently (september 2021) introduced. It is useful, well tested, stable and it will stay. However, the file format and the ergonomics of the command(s) to deal with known violations might still shift a bit without dependency-cruiser getting a major version bump.

The err, err-long and err-html reporters have been adapted to reflect the results of this feature well. Other reporters to which it is relevant (e.g. all of the dot family, html, teamcity) will follow in releases after dependency-cruiser v10.3.0.

With this option engaged dependency-cruiser will ignore known violations as saved in the file you pass it as a parameter. If you don't pass a filename dependency-cruiser will assume the known violations to live in a file called .dependency-cruiser-known-violations.json.

You can generate a known violations file with the baseline reporter e.g. like so:

dependency-cruiser src --config --output-type baseline --output-to .dependency-cruiser-known-violations.json

... or with the depcruise-baseline command which simplifies this a bit:

# will assume a .dependency-cruiser.{js,cjs,json} to exist and will write
# the baseline output to .dependency-cruiser-known-violations.json
depcruise-baseline src

How dependency-cruiser ignores known violations

For all violations dependency-cruiser finds in the known violations file it will lower the severity to ignore. It depends on the reporter how these show up. E.g. the err/ err-long reporters will hide all ignored violations, but add a warning if there's violations ignored:

✔ no dependency violations found (454 modules, 1078 dependencies cruised)
⚠ 20 known violations ignored. Run without --ignore-known to see them.

When is this useful?

When you first deploy dependency-cruiser in a large code base chances are it will detect quite some violations - even when it only uses the default set of rules that comes with --init. It will not always possible to fix all the violations right away. This means that any run of dependency-cruiser will show violations you already decided to fix later - possibly burrying any new violations (which you probably want to avoid).

With this option you can avoid that.

`--help` / no parameters

Running with no parameters or with --help gets you help.

Options also available in dependency-cruiser configurations

Some of the options in dependency-cruiser configurations are also available as command line options. They override what's in the configuration, so they're great if you need to quickly experiment with an option, or when you want to use one configuration for multiple purposes.

The first four options below will be of use when you want to tame the size of the visual representation of a big dependency graph. For the rest of the options you're typically best off setting in a configuration file (generate one with depcruise --init).

`--do-not-follow`: don't cruise modules adhering to this pattern any further

If you do want to see certain modules in your reports, but are not interested in these modules' dependencies, you'd pass the regular expression for those modules to the --do-not-follow (short: -X) option. A typical pattern you'd use with this is "node_modules" (but be sure to check out the possibilities you have with the doNotFollow option)

dependency-cruise -X "^node_modules" -T html -f deps-with-unfollowed-node_modules.html src

Details and more ways to limit dependency-cruiser from following things: check out the doNotFollow option in the options reference.

`--include-only`: only include modules satisfying a pattern

E.g. to only take modules into account that are in the src tree (and exclude all node_modules, core modules and modules otherwise outside it):

dependency-cruise --include-only "^src" -T dot src | dot -T svg > internal-dependency-graph.svg

See includeOnly in the options reference for more details.

`--focus`: show modules and their direct neighbours

You can use this e.g. to inspect one module or folder and see what the direct dependencies are and which modules are direct dependents.

Takes a regular expression in the same fashion --include-only, --exclude and --do-not-follow do.

dependency-cruise --include-only "^src" --focus "^src/main" -T dot src | dot -T svg > focus-on-main-dir-graph.svg

See focus in the options reference for more details.

`--collapse`: summarize to folder depth or pattern

If you feel the need for reporting on a higher level (e.g. on packages in a mono repo, or the main folders in src) you can use the --collapse option. It takes either a single digit or a regular expression.

--collapse: single digit

The most typical use for collapsing is to limit the folder depth. It is possible to do this with regular expressions (see below, and in the options reference). As this case occurs a lot you can pass

depcruise src --include-only ^src --collapse 2 -T dot | dot -T svg > collapsed.svg

Under water dependency-cruiser translates the single digit into a regular expression again. For 2 e.g. it generates /node_modules/[^/]+|^[^/]+\/[^/]+\//

--collapse: regular expression

If you need more flexibility, you can also pass a regular expression to --collapse. E.g. to only collapse stuff under node_modules and lib (but not under e.g. test and src) you can pass this:

depcruise src --do-not-follow node_modules --collapse "^(node_modules|lib)/[^/]+" -T dot | dot -T svg > collapsed.svg

--collapse works the same as the dot/ archi specific collapsePattern option, except it works for all reports instead of for only the dot and archi reporters. This means you can not only use it to make graphical output look better, but also to show simple textual output of relations between high level components e.g.

depcruise packages --include-only ^packages --collapse "^packages/[^/]+" -T text

`--exclude`: exclude dependencies from being cruised

If you don't want to see certain modules in your report (or not have them validated), you can exclude them by passing a regular expression to the --exclude (short: -x) option. Two examples:

dependency-cruise -x "node_modules" -T html -f deps-without-node_modules.html src

dependency-cruise -x "^(coverage|test|node_modules)" -T html -f deps-without-stuffs.html src

See the exclude option in the options reference for details.

`--max-depth`

Only cruise the specified depth, counting from the specified root-module(s). This command was mostly useful in combination with visualisation output like dot to keep the generated output to a manageable size.

You probably don't want to use these as today better options exist that serve the same goal and give better looking and more accurate results. E.g.:

use the --collapse option
use a collapsePattern in conjunction with your dot reporter to hide details you don't want to see right now
use filters like --include-only and --focus to only show a relevant part of your graph
use the archi reporter that produces a high level dependency-graph based on heuristics.

dependency-cruise --max-depth 2 -T dot src/main/index.ts | dot -T svg > depth-limited-dependency-graph.svg

See maxDepth

This will only be effective when you pass one file as an argument.

`--progress`: get feedback on what dependency-cruiser is doing while it's running

If the number of files dependency-cruiser needs to analyse is large, it can be busy for awhile. To get an impression of what dependency-cruiser is doing you can pass the --progress option.

cli-feedback (the default when you pass --progress without an option)

Gives a one-line summary of what dependency-cruiser is currently doing (e.g. parsing input, reading files, analyzing them, making a report about them). When dependency-cruiser is done it erases that feedback again so it doesn't clutter your logs. It also writes to stderr, so you can still safely redirect without the progress messages ending up in your output.

Typical output

▶ reading files ...

performance-log

Writes a detailed overview of the time and memory each step in dependency-cruiser's processing takes to stderr. The main purpose is to get a quick high-level overview of what dependency-cruiser is spending its time (and memory) on, so the results stay in view when dependency-cruiser is done.

Typical output

  elapsed heapTotal  heapUsed after step...
    712ms      72Mb      46Mb start of node process
      2ms      72Mb      46Mb parsing options
    100ms      73Mb      56Mb parsing rule set
      0ms      73Mb      56Mb making sense of files and directories
      0ms      73Mb      56Mb determining how to resolve
   1874ms     158Mb     138Mb reading files
      0ms     158Mb     138Mb analyzing
     17ms     161Mb     131Mb analyzing: cycles
      3ms     161Mb     132Mb analyzing: orphans
    161ms     163Mb     140Mb analyzing: reachables
      0ms     163Mb     140Mb analyzing: add focus (if any)
     51ms     163Mb     135Mb analyzing: validations
      2ms     163Mb     135Mb reporting
      0ms     163Mb     135Mb really done (2924ms)

none (the default when you don't pass --progress )

Make sure dependency-cruiser doesn't print any feedback. Usefull if you want to override the progress option configured in a configuration file (currently an undocumented feature that is subject to change).

`--prefix` prefixing links

In the dot output prefix links to the source files with a string - useful to link to e.g. an on line repository.

dependency-cruise --prefix "https://github.com/you/yourrepo/tree/master/" -T dot src | dot -T svg > dependency-graph-with-links-to-gh.svg

See prefix in the options reference for details.

`--module-systems`

Here you can pass a list of module systems dependency-cruiser should use to detect dependencies. It defaults to amd, cjs, es6.

See moduleSystems in the options reference.

`--ts-pre-compilation-deps` (typescript only)

By default dependency-cruiser does not take dependencies between typescript modules that don't exist after compilation to JavaScript. Pass this command line switch to do take them into account.

For details see tsPreCompilationDeps in the options reference.

`--ts-config`: use a typescript configuration file ('project')

If you use typescript and want dependency-cruiser to take the baseDir's and/ or paths in your tsconfig.json into account- can pass it with this option.

Although it's possible to pass it as a command line option, you typically want to do this in a configuration file - see tsConfig section in the options reference for details.

If you happen to use a jsconfig.json you can pass that as well - the syntax for tsconfig.json and jsconfig.json is identical for all practical purposes.

`--webpack-config`: use (the resolution options of) a webpack configuration

With a webpack config you can drastically alter how module names resolve to files on disk, a.o. with aliases. If you want dependency-cruiser to take that into account (you probably do), you can pass the webpack config here.

However, just like with tsconfigs, you probably want to put this in a configuration file - see the webpackConfig section in the options reference.

`--preserve-symlinks`

Whether to leave symlinks as is or resolve them to their realpath. This option defaults to false (which is also nodejs' default behavior since release 6).

You'll typically want to set this in the configuration file with the preserveSymlinks option.

depcruise-fmt

depcruise-fmt is a separate command line program, that takes the (json) output of a dependency-cruise and runs one of the reporters over it. This could be useful if you want to display the results of the same cruise in different ways, without having to run the cruise repeatedly. Especially on bigger code bases this can save time. Cruising all code can sometimes take more than a minute, while formatting usually takes well below a second.

For instance, to report any violations to console, create a distributable report and generate a dependency graph. With just the depcruise command this would look like

depcruise -v -T err-long src
depcruise -v -T err-html src -f violation-report.html
depcruise -v -T dot src | dot -T svg > dependency-graph.svg

With depcruise-fmt there's just one cruise and three quick depcruise-fmt commands

depcruise -v -T json src -f cruise_result.json
depcruise-fmt -T err-long cruise_result.json
depcruise-fmt -T err-html -f violation-report.html cruise_result.json
depcruise-fmt -T dot cruise_result.json | dot -T svg > dependency-graph.svg

filters

You can also use the filters --focus, --include-only and --exclude to peruse parts of the dependency-graph. This could be useful for chopping up humoungous graphs efficiently, or to quickly find the uses of a module:

depcruise -v -T json src -f cruise_result.json
depcruise-fmt -T dot --focus "^src/main" cruise_result.json | dot -T svg > main.svg
depcruise-fmt -T dot --focus "^src/juggle" cruise_result.json | dot -T svg > juggle.svg
depcruise-fmt -T dot --include-only "^src/the-law" cruise_result.json | dot -T svg > the-law.svg

## or to find dependencies going into or departing from the spelunkme module
## and emitting them to stdout:
depcruise-fmt -T text --focus "^src/main/spelunkme\\.ts$" cruise_result.json

collapse/ summarize

Summarize or collapse to either a folder depth or (if you're feeling fancy) a regular expression. It works the same as the regular depcruise command's --collapse option.

getting non-zero exit codes

If you want to see non-zero exit codes when there's error level dependency violations, you can use the --exit-code (short: -e). This only works for the output types that support non-zero exit codes (err, err-long and TeamCity). Example for the default output type (err):

depcruise-fmt -e cruise_result.json

What --help will tell you

Usage: depcruise-fmt [options] <dependency-cruiser-json>

Format dependency-cruiser output json.
Details: https://github.com/sverweij/dependency-cruiser

Options:
  -f, --output-to <file>      file to write output to; - for stdout (default:
                              "-")
  -T, --output-type <type>    output type; e.g. err, err-html, dot, ddot, archi,
                              flat, baseline or json (default: "err")
  -I, --include-only <regex>  only include modules matching the regex
  -F, --focus <regex>         only include modules matching the regex + their
                              direct neighbours
  -x, --exclude <regex>       exclude all modules matching the regex
  -S, --collapse <regex>      collapse the modules to the regex pattern E.g.
                              ^packages/[^/]+/ collapses to modules/ folders
                              directly under your packages folder. Or pass a
                              single digit (e.g. 2) to collapse to a folder
                              depth.
  -e, --exit-code             exit with a non-zero exit code when the input
                              json contains error level dependency violations.
                              Works for err, err-long and teamcity output types
  -V, --version               output the version number
  -h, --help                  display help for command

depcruise-baseline

To create a baseline of known violations. You can use the resulting file to tell regular dependency-cruiser you want to ignore them for now and to only focus on new ones.

Shortcut for depcruise -c -T baseline -f .dependency-cruiser-known-violations.json which might be a bit of an elaborate incantation for generating a list of known violations.

If your sources & test live in src, test and you use the default filenames for the dependency-cruiser configuration and known violations (recommended) then...

depcruise-baseline src test

... will generate the baseline of known violations to .dependency-cruiser-known-violations.json.

The two command line options exist in case you want these files to live in different spots; --config to specify where the config file lives, --output-to to write to an alternative output location.

depcruise-wrap-stream-in-html

With depcruise-wrap-stream-in-html you can wrap the graphical output of GraphViz dot into html that is geared to make the graph easier to use. It a.o. adds highlight-on-hover.

Typical use:

depcruise -v -T dot src | dot -T svg | depcruise-wrap-stream-in-html > dependency-graph.html

This works for all dot-based reporters, including archi and ddot

Some examples:

Dependency-cruiser's own dependency graph
yarn v2's high level dependency graph (archi reporter)
state-machine-cat's dependency graph

Daphne's dependencies - a gentle introduction

Daphne's dependencies sport a visual overview of all the output formats. It also shows how Daphne and her colleagues use them in their workflow.

Files

cli.md

Latest commit

History

cli.md

File metadata and controls

dependency-cruiser command line interface

Contents

Command line only options

Options also available in dependency-cruiser configurations

Standalone formatting of dependency graphs: depcruise-fmt

Baseline dependencies: depcruise-baseline

Make GraphViz output more interactive: depcruise-wrap-stream-in-html

Command line only options

arguments - files and/ or directories

Cruising multiple files and directories in one go

passing globs as parameters

--output-type: specify the output format

err

err-long

dot

ddot - summarise on folder level

archi/ cdot

flat/ fdot

err-html

html

csv

teamcity

text

json

anon - obfuscated json

Original

Obfuscated

baseline - generate known violations

--config/ --validate

--init

--info showing what alt-js are supported

--ignore-known: ignore known violations

How dependency-cruiser ignores known violations

When is this useful?

--help / no parameters

Options also available in dependency-cruiser configurations

--do-not-follow: don't cruise modules adhering to this pattern any further

--include-only: only include modules satisfying a pattern

--focus: show modules and their direct neighbours

--collapse: summarize to folder depth or pattern

--collapse: single digit

--collapse: regular expression

--exclude: exclude dependencies from being cruised

--max-depth

--progress: get feedback on what dependency-cruiser is doing while it's running

cli-feedback (the default when you pass --progress without an option)

performance-log

none (the default when you don't pass --progress )

--prefix prefixing links

--module-systems

--ts-pre-compilation-deps (typescript only)

--ts-config: use a typescript configuration file ('project')

--webpack-config: use (the resolution options of) a webpack configuration

--preserve-symlinks

depcruise-fmt

filters

collapse/ summarize

getting non-zero exit codes

What --help will tell you

depcruise-baseline

depcruise-wrap-stream-in-html

Daphne's dependencies - a gentle introduction

`--output-type`: specify the output format

`--config`/ `--validate`

`--init`

`--info` showing what alt-js are supported

`--ignore-known`: ignore known violations

`--help` / no parameters

`--do-not-follow`: don't cruise modules adhering to this pattern any further

`--include-only`: only include modules satisfying a pattern

`--focus`: show modules and their direct neighbours

`--collapse`: summarize to folder depth or pattern

`--exclude`: exclude dependencies from being cruised

`--max-depth`

`--progress`: get feedback on what dependency-cruiser is doing while it's running

`--prefix` prefixing links

`--module-systems`

`--ts-pre-compilation-deps` (typescript only)

`--ts-config`: use a typescript configuration file ('project')

`--webpack-config`: use (the resolution options of) a webpack configuration

`--preserve-symlinks`