I am quite new to npm but I have a question about npm node modules. I have the node modules now installed in several directories. One for Gulp, one for nodeJS etc. I was wondering how I could have one dedicated node modules directory and let the other packages point to that directory, instead of having node modules all over the place.
What is best practise?
Cheers,
Lino
Yes, you can have global node_modules directory accessible to multiple application.
A package is available globally if it is installed with -g option. For instance if body-parser is required globally it should be installed with the following npm command:
npm install body-parser -g
Following are the paths are usage of modules:
Local install (default): puts stuff in ./node_modules of the current
package root.
Global install (with -g): puts stuff in /usr/local or wherever
node is installed.
Install it locally if you're going to require() it.
Install it globally if you're going to run it on the command line.
If you need both, then install it in both places, or use
npm link.
Related
I have installed two modules globally which are discord.js and request. When I do npm list -g, I seem them in there. When I go to my project folder and fire up a command prompt, I type node app.js and it says it cannot find discord.js, why is this? I had just reinstalled Windows and this was working perfectly before the reinstall.
When you run npm list -g you are getting the list of globally installed modules instead of those in the currently installed project.
Globally installed modules reside in something like /usr/local/lib/node_modules, whereas locally installed modules reside in /your_project/node_modules.
From the npm documentation for npm ls -g (aliased in your case to npm list -g):
global
Default: false
Type: Boolean
List packages in the global install prefix instead of in the current project.
The Node.js require does not look in the global node_modules folder, only your local node_modules folder.
You can either add your global node_modules folder to your NODE_PATH environment variable or install using npm install without the -g flag. When you run npm install --save <module name> you install the module in the node_modules folder for the current project, which allows your project to run properly.
Apparently I had to do npm install --save <module name>
Even though it's the answer to my problem, can anybody answer why it did this?
The Node.js npm (Node Package Manager) has a -g command line argument, which I often see referenced. For example, the documentation for the Microsoft Azure x-plat (cross-platform) CLI tool says to install it by using npm install -g azure-cli.
Question: What does the -g option do?
What options do I have to install node modules?
After writing this I quickly found and old but still applicable post by Isaac (yes, the npm #isaacs). But I still think the below post is informational.
You can install npm modules globally or locally - you already know that, but why?
Globally: npm install -g some-module-a: This module is intended to be used as an executable (i.e. CLI, file watcher, code minifier, logger, etc.).
Locally: npm install some-module-b: To be imported and used in your app via import, var someModule = require('some-module)
global modules are one of the best ideas of npm. We can easily create executables using node/javascript. If your node app is meant to be run as an executable, then you will want others to install it globally. If it's a utility, helper, application, etc. then you usually don't want it installed globally. So, unless the module explicitly states that you should install it with -g, then don't.
One more time: if you are wanting to use some module called some-module in your node app - var someModule = require('some-module'), then npm install some-module from the root of your node app to pull it into your local node_modules directory. If you've installed some-module globally and not locally, it will usually not load and will show you an error about not finding the module (even though it can be made to load the global module - hint: just don't!)
So what exactly happens when you install globally?
npm install -g [some module] installs the specified node module in a directory higher up in your file system (i.e. usually /usr/local/lib/node_modules in unix systems). The biggest use case for global modules is for CLIs written using node (think npm, bower, gulp, grunt, et. al.).
Let's look at what happens when you install bower globally:
*follow these steps in your command line/terminal
step: npm install -g bower
explanation: the module - all of it's files and dependencies - are saved in your global directory (e.g. /usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower).
Something else happened here. Somehow you can now run bower in your command line. Awesome!
step: bower -v --> results in the installed bower version (i.e. 1.6.5)
explanation: It's now a fully executable node app using bower as the keyword. Inside bower's package.json file you'll find a bin property:
"bin": {
"bower": "bin/bower"
}
So how did that all work?
npm will create a symlink from where most executables live, /usr/local/bin/bower over to /usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower/bin/bower, where the module lives. That symlink makes it so when the executable runs, it can reference other files in the original module, including it's local node_modules. Pretty cool, huh?
*Note on executables: If you create a file called awesomeness in /usr/local/bin/ and chmod u+x (user + executable) it. Then write some scripting in it (in this case javascript using #!/usr/bin/env node at the top). Then you can run it anywhere in your command line/terminal just by typing awesomeness.
Hope that helped. I know doing a deeper dive into it helped me early on.
Node.js packages can be installed one of two ways:
Globally
Locally
The -g option instructs npm to install the package globally. You would install a Node.js package globally, if you want to be able to call the command directly from the terminal.
From the documentation:
There are two ways to install npm packages: locally or globally. You choose which kind of installation to use based on how you want to use the package.
If you want to use it as a command line tool, something like the grunt CLI, then you can want to install it globally. On the other hand, if you want to depend on the package from your own module using something like Node's require, then you want to install locally.
To download packages globally, you simply use the command npm install -g , e.g.:
Kinda 2 questions related to each other here.
When doing a brew install node, should I first navigate to the root of whatever folder I'm going to hold all my future web projects/apps then run it? Or does it not matter where I run the install initially for Node? Because I notice it creates a node_modules folder in /local/lib/node_modules
I assume it doesn't matter, and when you start installing node packages using npm install [package] it'll create a separate node_modules folder under the context you're in so lets say /www/MyApplication run npm install and it'll create /www/MyApplication/node_modules....and that the one under /local/lib/node_modules just serves as the one for npm itself because it needs its own root node_modules folder which is how npm runs?
Correct, it makes no difference where you run brew install node, it will install into your Homebrew folder.
When you use npm to install a Node module, it will install into the current directory, unless you use the -g global flag. Normally you will install modules that are project dependencies into your project folder, and global modules are for global utilities.
For example, to use Grunt you would install the grunt-cli package globally for the command-line utility.
npm install -g grunt-cli
And for each project that uses Grunt you will install a version of the grunt module for use with the project.
npm install grunt
I just setup official node.js on windows which includes npm in custom directory d:\myserver\nodejs
I tested npm with
npm install less
it works but I can't see any less directory in node_modules\npm\node_modules subdirectory.
Where could I find it (I guess the name of less module is actually less).
under : node_modules
just check where you where pointer "in what directory were you" at the time of the installation
d:\myserver\nodejs -> node_modules
Just for further clarification, google brought me here while looking up where global modules are stored (installed via npm install -g ...).
From the documentation
Local install (default): puts stuff in ./node_modules of the current package root.
Global install (with -g): puts stuff in /usr/local or wherever node is installed.
Install it locally if you’re going to require() it.
Install it globally if you’re going to run it on the command line.
If you need both, then install it in both places, or use npm link.
I've installed NVM for node.js using the instructions from this post:
http://www.backdrifter.com/2011/02/18/using-nvm-and-npm-to-manage-node-js/
When I switch between node versions and then use npm to install a module, all the modules are placed in the same 'node_modules' folder (~/node_modules/) instead of in the 'node_modules' directory specific to that version of node?
Any idea on how to remedy this?
Based on the comments from https://github.com/creationix/nvm/pull/97:
When installing packages with npm using the global switch -g the
package ends up in the proper directory (i.e.
.nvm/$VERSION/lib/node_modules), however node is unable to require it
since it somehow isn't searching on it's prefix.
So using npm install -g xxxxx will put the modules in the correct location for NVM but if you try to require one of them node can't find the module. I am still playing around with this and will update if I find a solution.
Update
Where does NPM put node_modules? (see https://docs.npmjs.com/files/folders)
Local install (default): puts stuff in ./node_modules of the current package root.
Global install (with -g): puts stuff in /usr/local or wherever node is installed.
Install it locally if you're going to require() it.
Install it globally if you're going to run it on the command line.
If you need both, then install it in both places, or use npm link.
So what I did was run npm init (see http://npmjs.org/doc/init.html) in my projects root dir which generated package.json. Now when I run npm install xxxxx it creates a node_modules dir in my project folder (which I add to my .gitignore). This works for modules that I require in my code.
For commands such as CoffeeScript I install with npm install -g coffee-script which puts it in the correct directory (.nvm/$VERSION/lib/node_modules). While I can't require these modules (npm link should solve this problem) I can run the commands - i.e. coffee.
I just installed express globally (-g) and was having problem when require("express"). Just like Jesse Vogt said I just reinstalled express but this time without the -g just like this: "sudo npm install express" and now is working perfectly!
For latest nvm window version 1.1.7.
Package was installed and placed into the respective nodejs version.
nvm use 16.8.0
npm install truffle
nvm use 16.7.0
npm install mysql