# Linking to third party code

In the [Getting Started](./getting_started.md) section, we saw Deno could
execute scripts from URLs. Like browser JavaScript, Deno can import libraries
directly from URLs. This example uses a URL to import an assertion library:

**test.ts**

```ts
import { assertEquals } from "https://deno.land/std@$STD_VERSION/testing/asserts.ts";

assertEquals("hello", "hello");
assertEquals("world", "world");

console.log("Asserted! ✓");
```

Try running this:

```shell
$ deno run test.ts
Compile file:///mnt/f9/Projects/github.com/denoland/deno/docs/test.ts
Download https://deno.land/std@$STD_VERSION/testing/asserts.ts
Download https://deno.land/std@$STD_VERSION/fmt/colors.ts
Download https://deno.land/std@$STD_VERSION/testing/diff.ts
Asserted! ✓
```

Note that we did not have to provide the `--allow-net` flag for this program,
and yet it accessed the network. The runtime has special access to download
imports and cache them to disk.

Deno caches remote imports in a special directory specified by the `DENO_DIR`
environment variable. It defaults to the system's cache directory if `DENO_DIR`
is not specified. The next time you run the program, no downloads will be made.
If the program hasn't changed, it won't be recompiled either. The default
directory is:

- On Linux/Redox: `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/deno` or `$HOME/.cache/deno`
- On Windows: `%LOCALAPPDATA%/deno` (`%LOCALAPPDATA%` = `FOLDERID_LocalAppData`)
- On macOS: `$HOME/Library/Caches/deno`
- If something fails, it falls back to `$HOME/.deno`

## FAQ

### How do I import a specific version of a module?

Specify the version in the URL. For example, this URL fully specifies the code
being run: `https://unpkg.com/liltest@0.0.5/dist/liltest.js`.

### It seems unwieldy to import URLs everywhere.

> What if one of the URLs links to a subtly different version of a library?

> Isn't it error prone to maintain URLs everywhere in a large project?

The solution is to import and re-export your external libraries in a central
`deps.ts` file (which serves the same purpose as Node's `package.json` file).
For example, let's say you were using the above assertion library across a large
project. Rather than importing
`"https://deno.land/std@$STD_VERSION/testing/asserts.ts"` everywhere, you could
create a `deps.ts` file that exports the third-party code:

**deps.ts**

```ts
export {
  assert,
  assertEquals,
  assertStrContains,
} from "https://deno.land/std@$STD_VERSION/testing/asserts.ts";
```

And throughout the same project, you can import from the `deps.ts` and avoid
having many references to the same URL:

```ts
import { assertEquals, runTests, test } from "./deps.ts";
```

This design circumvents a plethora of complexity spawned by package management
software, centralized code repositories, and superfluous file formats.

### How can I trust a URL that may change?

By using a lock file (with the `--lock` command line flag), you can ensure that
the code pulled from a URL is the same as it was during initial development. You
can learn more about this
[here](./linking_to_external_code/integrity_checking.md).

### But what if the host of the URL goes down? The source won't be available.

This, like the above, is a problem faced by _any_ remote dependency system.
Relying on external servers is convenient for development but brittle in
production. Production software should always vendor its dependencies. In Node
this is done by checking `node_modules` into source control. In Deno this is
done by pointing `$DENO_DIR` to some project-local directory at runtime, and
similarly checking that into source control:

```shell
# Download the dependencies.
DENO_DIR=./deno_dir deno cache src/deps.ts

# Make sure the variable is set for any command which invokes the cache.
DENO_DIR=./deno_dir deno test src

# Check the directory into source control.
git add -u deno_dir
git commit
```