Angular CLI

# Note

If you are updating from a beta or RC version, check out our 1.0 Update Guide.

If you wish to collaborate, check out our issue list.

Before submitting new issues, have a look at issues marked with the `type: faq` label.

# Prerequisites

Both the CLI and generated project have dependencies that require Node 8.9 or higher, together with NPM 5.5.1 or higher.

# Table of Contents

- Installation
- Usage
- Generating a New Project
- Generating Components, Directives, Pipes and Services
- Updating Angular CLI
- Development Hints for working on Angular CLI
- Documentation
- License

# Installation

BEFORE YOU INSTALL: please read the prerequisites

## Install Globally

npm install -g @angular/cli

## Install Locally

npm install @angular/cli

To run a locally installed version of the angular-cli, you can call `ng` commands directly by adding the `.bin` folder within your local `node_modules` folder to your PATH. The `node_modules` and `.bin` folders are created in the directory where `npm install @angular/cli` was run upon completion of the install command.

Alternatively, you can install npx and run `npx ng <command>` within the local directory where `npm install @angular/cli` was run, which will use the locally installed angular-cli.

## Install Specific Version (Example: 6.1.1)

npm install -g @angular/cli@6.1.1

# Usage

ng help

## Generating and serving an Angular project via a development server

ng new PROJECT-NAME
cd PROJECT-NAME
ng serve

Navigate to `http://localhost:4200/`. The app will automatically reload if you change any of the source files.

You can configure the default HTTP host and port used by the development server with two command-line options :

ng serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 4201

## Generating Components, Directives, Pipes and Services

You can use the `ng generate` (or just `ng g`) command to generate Angular components:

ng generate component my-new-component
ng g component my-new-component # using the alias
# components support relative path generation
# if in the directory src/app/feature/ and you run
ng g component new-cmp
# your component will be generated in src/app/feature/new-cmp
# but if you were to run
ng g component ./newer-cmp
# your component will be generated in src/app/newer-cmp
# if in the directory src/app you can also run
ng g component feature/new-cmp
# and your component will be generated in src/app/feature/new-cmp

You can find all possible blueprints in the table below:

Scaffold | Usage
--- | ---
Component | `ng g component my-new-component`
Directive | `ng g directive my-new-directive`
Pipe | `ng g pipe my-new-pipe`
Service | `ng g service my-new-service`
Class | `ng g class my-new-class`
Guard | `ng g guard my-new-guard`
Interface | `ng g interface my-new-interface`
Enum | `ng g enum my-new-enum`
Module | `ng g module my-module`

angular-cli will add reference to `components`, `directives` and `pipes` automatically in the `app.module.ts`. If you need to add this references to another custom module, follow these steps:

1. `ng g module new-module` to create a new module
2. call `ng g component new-module/new-component`

This should add the new `component`, `directive` or `pipe` reference to the `new-module` you've created.

## Updating Angular CLI

If you're using Angular CLI `1.0.0-beta.28` or less, you need to uninstall `angular-cli` package. It should be done due to changing of package's name and scope from `angular-cli` to `@angular/cli`:

npm uninstall -g angular-cli
npm uninstall --save-dev angular-cli

To update Angular CLI to a new version, you must update both the global package and your project's local package.

Global package:

npm uninstall -g @angular/cli
npm cache verify
# if npm version is < 5 then use `npm cache clean`
npm install -g @angular/cli@latest

Local project package:

rm -rf node_modules dist # use rmdir /S/Q node_modules dist in Windows Command Prompt; use rm -r -fo node_modules,dist in Windows PowerShell
npm install --save-dev @angular/cli@latest
npm install

If you are updating to 1.0 from a beta or RC version, check out our 1.0 Update Guide.

You can find more details about changes between versions in the Releases tab on GitHub.

# Development Hints for working on Angular CLI

## Working with master

git clone https://github.com/angular/angular-cli.git
yarn
npm run build
cd dist/@angular/cli
npm link

`npm link` is very similar to `npm install -g` except that instead of downloading the package from the repo, the just built `dist/@angular/cli/` folder becomes the global package. Additionally, this repository publishes several packages and we use special logic to load all of them on development setups.

Any changes to the files in the `angular-cli/` folder will immediately affect the global `@angular/cli` package, meaning that, in order to quickly test any changes you make to the cli project, you should simply just run `npm run build` again.

Now you can use `@angular/cli` via the command line:

ng new foo
cd foo
npm link @angular/cli
ng serve

`npm link @angular/cli` is needed because by default the globally installed `@angular/cli` just loads the local `@angular/cli` from the project which was fetched remotely from npm. `npm link @angular/cli` symlinks the global `@angular/cli` package to the local `@angular/cli` package. Now the `angular-cli` you cloned before is in three places: The folder you cloned it into, npm's folder where it stores global packages and the Angular CLI project you just created.

You can also use `ng new foo --link-cli` to automatically link the `@angular/cli` package.

Please read the official npm-link documentation and the npm-link cheatsheet for more information.

To run the Angular CLI E2E test suite, use the `node ./tests/legacy-cli/run_e2e` command. It can also receive a filename to only run that test (e.g. `node ./tests/legacy-cli/run_e2e tests/legacy-cli/e2e/tests/build/dev-build.ts`).

As part of the test procedure, all packages will be built and linked. You will need to re-run `npm link` to re-link the development Angular CLI environment after tests finish.

## Debugging with VS Code

In order to debug some Angular CLI behaviour using Visual Studio Code, you can run `npm run build`, and then use a launch configuration like the following:

{
"type": "node",
"request": "launch",
"name": "ng serve",
"cwd": "<path to an Angular project generated with Angular-CLI>",
"program": "${workspaceFolder}/dist/@angular/cli/bin/ng",
"args": [
"<ng command>",
...other arguments
],
"console": "integratedTerminal"
}

Then you can add breakpoints in `dist/@angular` files.

For more informations about Node.js debugging in VS Code, see the related VS Code Documentation.

## CPU Profiling

In order to investigate performance issues, CPU profiling is often useful.

To capture a CPU profiling, you can:

1. install the v8-profiler-node8 dependency: `npm install v8-profiler-node8 --no-save`

1. set the NG_CLI_PROFILING Environment variable to the file name you want:
   - on Unix systems (Linux & Mac OS X): ̀`export NG_CLI_PROFILING=my-profile`
   - on Windows: ̀̀`setx NG_CLI_PROFILING my-profile`

Then, just run the ng command on which you want to capture a CPU profile. You will then obtain a `my-profile.cpuprofile` file in the folder from which you ran the ng command.

You can use the Chrome Devtools to process it. To do so:

1. open `chrome://inspect/#devices` in Chrome

1. click on "Open dedicated DevTools for Node"

1. go to the "profiler" tab

1. click on the "Load" button and select the generated .cpuprofile file

1. on the left panel, select the associated file

In addition to this one, another, more elaborated way to capture a CPU profile using the Chrome Devtools is detailed in https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/issues/8259#issue-269908550.

# Documentation

The documentation for the Angular CLI is located in this repo's wiki.

# License

MIT