Packaging a Express application

package.js

/*

  Deploying an Express application involves packaging, a) dependent node
  modules, read from 'package.json', b) and a list of arbitrary other
  directories required at runtime.

  Usage:

    $ tar -cvzf source-0.1.0.tar.gz `node scripts/package.js`

*/

var fs = require('fs'),
    package = fs.readFileSync('package.json', 'utf-8'),
    dependencies = 
        Object
            .keys(JSON.parse(package).dependencies) // extract runtime dependencies from package.json
            .map(
                function (dependency) {
                    return 'node_modules/' + dependency; // convert them to file system paths
                })
            .concat( // add arbitrary other files/directories to the package
              [
                'ft-frontend-template-map.json',
                'client',
                'templates',
                'static',
                'server'
              ])

console.log(dependencies.join(' ')); // return a tar friendly string

var package = require('./package.json');
var dependencies = package.dependencies.