React NativeUpgrading to new versions of React Native has been difficult. You might have seen something like this before:
None of those options is ideal. By overwriting the file we lose our local changes. By not overwriting we don't get the latest updates.
Today I am proud to introduce a new tool that helps solve this problem. The tool is called react-native-git-upgrade and uses Git behind the scenes to resolve conflicts automatically whenever possible.
Usage #
Requirement: Git has to be available in the
PATH. Your project doesn't have to be managed by Git.
Install react-native-git-upgrade globally and run it inside your project directory:
Nicolas Cuillery —
Easier Upgrades Thanks to Git
Upgrading to new versions of React Native has been difficult. You might have seen something like this before:
None of those options is ideal. By overwriting the file we lose our local changes. By not overwriting we don't get the latest updates.
Today I am proud to introduce a new tool that helps solve this problem. The tool is called react-native-git-upgrade and uses Git behind the scenes to resolve conflicts automatically whenever possible.
Usage #
Requirement: Git has to be available in the
PATH. Your project doesn't have to be managed by Git.
Install react-native-git-upgrade globally:
or, using Yarn:
Then, run it inside your project directory:
Note: Do not run 'npm install' to install a new version of
react-native. The tool needs to be able to compare the old and new project template to work correctly. Simply run it inside your app folder as shown above, while still on the old version.
Example output:
You can also run react-native-git-upgrade with no arguments to upgrade to the latest version of React Native.
We try to preserve your changes in iOS and Android build files, so you don't need to run react-native link after an upgrade.
We have designed the implementation to be as little intrusive as possible. It is entirely based on a local Git repository created on-the-fly in a temporary directory. It won't interfere with your project repository (no matter what VCS you use: Git, SVN, Mercurial, ... or none). Your sources are restored in case of unexpected errors.
How does it work? #
The key step is generating a Git patch. The patch contains all the changes made in the React Native templates between the version your app is using and the new version.
To obtain this patch, we need to generate an app from the templates embedded in the react-native package inside your node_modules directory (these are the same templates the react-native init commands uses). Then, after the native apps have been generated from the templates in both the current version and the new version, Git is able to produce a patch that is adapted to your project (i.e. containing your app name):