# Code scraps: linking node_modules during build

Before version 0.1, [natlib](https://github.com/mvasilkov/natlib) had examples in the main repo, and they were built together with the library. (This is no longer the case, as the examples and tests moved to a [separate repo](https://github.com/mvasilkov/natlab).)

To produce a node\_modules folder as if natlib was installed as a dependency, the following Python script was used:

```python
#!/usr/bin/env python3

from contextlib import contextmanager, ExitStack
from pathlib import Path
import shutil

from but.external.typescript import typescript_call

OUR_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]


@contextmanager
def create_symlink(path: Path):
    node_modules = path / 'node_modules'
    node_modules.mkdir()
    (node_modules / 'natlib').symlink_to(OUR_ROOT / 'out', target_is_directory=True)

    try:
        yield
    finally:
        shutil.rmtree(node_modules)


def build():
    examples = OUR_ROOT / 'examples'

    projects = (
        ('..', False),
        ('couch2048', True),
        ('notfound', True),
    )

    for path_str, need_symlink in projects:
        path = examples / path_str

        with ExitStack() as stack:
            if need_symlink:
                stack.enter_context(create_symlink(path))

            typescript_call(['--project', path])
```

Here, `OUR_ROOT / 'out'` is where TypeScript puts the resulting JS files.

This way the code that runs inside the context manager block has its node\_modules folder set up correctly.