The npm package 'npm' is the package manager for Node.js. It allows users to install, update, and manage dependencies for Node.js applications. It also provides tools for package discovery, publishing, and managing a local development environment.
Package Installation
Installs the 'express' package and its dependencies into the node_modules directory.
npm install expressPackage Update
Updates the 'lodash' package to the latest version according to the versioning in package.json.
npm update lodashPackage Removal
Removes the 'moment' package from the node_modules directory and updates the package.json.
npm uninstall momentListing Installed Packages
Lists the top-level packages installed in the node_modules directory.
npm list --depth=0Running Scripts
Runs the 'test' script specified in the package.json file.
npm run testPublishing a Package
Publishes the current package to the npm registry, making it available for others to install.
npm publishYarn is a package manager that provides faster, more reliable, and more secure dependency management compared to npm. It uses a lockfile to ensure that the same package versions are installed across different environments.
pnpm is a fast, disk space efficient package manager that works by creating a single copy of a package version and linking it in the node_modules of every project that uses it. This approach saves disk space and improves installation speed compared to npm.
Bower is a package manager primarily for front-end web development. It manages components that contain HTML, CSS, JavaScript, fonts, or even image files. Bower is less commonly used now due to npm and Yarn's ability to handle front-end packages as well.
This is just enough info to get you up and running.
Much more info available via npm help once it's installed.
You need node v0.8 or higher to run this program.
To install an old and unsupported version of npm that works on node 0.3 and prior, clone the git repo and dig through the old tags and branches.
npm comes with node now.
Get the MSI. npm is in it.
Get the pkg. npm is in it.
Run make install. npm will be installed with node.
If you want a more fancy pants install (a different version, customized paths, etc.) then read on.
There's a pretty robust install script at https://www.npmjs.org/install.sh. You can download that and run it.
Here's an example using curl:
curl -L https://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
You can set any npm configuration params with that script:
npm_config_prefix=/some/path sh install.sh
Or, you can run it in uber-debuggery mode:
npm_debug=1 sh install.sh
Get the code with git. Use make to build the docs and do other stuff.
If you plan on hacking on npm, make link is your friend.
If you've got the npm source code, you can also semi-permanently set
arbitrary config keys using the ./configure --key=val ..., and then
run npm commands by doing node cli.js <cmd> <args>. (This is helpful
for testing, or running stuff without actually installing npm itself.)
You can download a zip file from https://npmjs.org/dist/, and unpack it in the same folder where node.exe lives.
If that's not fancy enough for you, then you can fetch the code with git, and mess with it directly.
No.
tl;dr
sudo for greater safety. Or don't, if you prefer not to.As of version 0.3, it is recommended to run npm as root.
This allows npm to change the user identifier to the nobody user prior
to running any package build or test commands.
If you are not the root user, or if you are on a platform that does not support uid switching, then npm will not attempt to change the userid.
If you would like to ensure that npm always runs scripts as the "nobody" user, and have it fail if it cannot downgrade permissions, then set the following configuration param:
npm config set unsafe-perm false
This will prevent running in unsafe mode, even as non-root users.
So sad to see you go.
sudo npm uninstall npm -g
Or, if that fails,
sudo make uninstall
Usually, the above instructions are sufficient. That will remove npm, but leave behind anything you've installed.
If you would like to remove all the packages that you have installed,
then you can use the npm ls command to find them, and then npm rm to
remove them.
To remove cruft left behind by npm 0.x, you can use the included
clean-old.sh script file. You can run it conveniently like this:
npm explore npm -g -- sh scripts/clean-old.sh
npm uses two configuration files, one for per-user configs, and another for global (every-user) configs. You can view them by doing:
npm config get userconfig # defaults to ~/.npmrc
npm config get globalconfig # defaults to /usr/local/etc/npmrc
Uninstalling npm does not remove configuration files by default. You must remove them yourself manually if you want them gone. Note that this means that future npm installs will not remember the settings that you have chosen.
If you would like to use npm programmatically, you can do that. It's not very well documented, but it is rather simple.
Most of the time, unless you actually want to do all the things that npm does, you should try using one of npm's dependencies rather than using npm itself, if possible.
Eventually, npm will be just a thin cli wrapper around the modules that it depends on, but for now, there are some things that you must use npm itself to do.
var npm = require("npm")
npm.load(myConfigObject, function (er) {
if (er) return handlError(er)
npm.commands.install(["some", "args"], function (er, data) {
if (er) return commandFailed(er)
// command succeeded, and data might have some info
})
npm.on("log", function (message) { .... })
})
The load function takes an object hash of the command-line configs.
The various npm.commands.<cmd> functions take an array of
positional argument strings. The last argument to any
npm.commands.<cmd> function is a callback. Some commands take other
optional arguments. Read the source.
You cannot set configs individually for any single npm function at this
time. Since npm is a singleton, any call to npm.config.set will
change the value for all npm commands in that process.
See ./bin/npm-cli.js for an example of pulling config values off of the
command line arguments using nopt. You may also want to check out npm help config to learn about all the options you can set there.
Check out the docs, especially the faq.
You can use the npm help command to read any of them.
If you're a developer, and you want to use npm to publish your program, you should read this
"npm" and "The npm Registry" are owned by npm, Inc. All rights reserved. See the included LICENSE file for more details.
"Node.js" and "node" are trademarks owned by Joyent, Inc.
Modules published on the npm registry are not officially endorsed by npm, Inc. or the Node.js project.
Data published to the npm registry is not part of npm itself, and is the sole property of the publisher. While every effort is made to ensure accountability, there is absolutely no guarantee, warrantee, or assertion expressed or implied as to the quality, fitness for a specific purpose, or lack of malice in any given npm package.
If you have a complaint about a package in the public npm registry, and cannot resolve it with the package owner, please email support@npmjs.com and explain the situation.
Any data published to The npm Registry (including user account information) may be removed or modified at the sole discretion of the npm server administrators.
npm is the property of npm, Inc.
If you publish something, it's yours, and you are solely accountable for it.
If other people publish something, it's theirs.
Users can publish Bad Stuff. It will be removed promptly if reported. But there is no vetting process for published modules, and you use them at your own risk. Please inspect the source.
If you publish Bad Stuff, we may delete it from the registry, or even ban your account in extreme cases. So don't do that.
When you find issues, please report them:
Be sure to include all of the output from the npm command that didn't work
as expected. The npm-debug.log file is also helpful to provide.
You can also look for isaacs in #node.js on irc://irc.freenode.net. He will no doubt tell you to put the output in a gist or email.
FAQs
a package manager for JavaScript
The npm package npm receives a total of 6,380,734 weekly downloads. As such, npm popularity was classified as popular.
We found that npm demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 6 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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Research
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Socket's package search now displays weekly downloads for npm packages, helping developers quickly assess popularity and make more informed decisions.
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