Here is an example command for installing npm v2 instead of latest (which is v3):
npm install -g npm#latest-2
How does this syntax work?
Usually I use either latest or explicit version, but haven't seen such syntax before.
I've tried something similar with other packages, for example:
npm install express#latest-4
but it fails with error No compatible version found: express#latest-4
These are called tags, and they're intended to allow developers to label particular versions of their packages in a more human readable way.
By default, all versions are tagged as latest, but say you have a beta version that you want some users to test - rather than making them specify a particular version to install, you can tag your betas with npm publish --tag beta. This will then allow them to run npm install mypkg#beta to get the latest beta version.
You can also tag a version after you've already published by using npm dist-tag add <pkg>#<version> [<tag>].
See https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/using-tags for more info.
Related
When I did npm -v it showed version 7.something.
I just wanted to make sure I have the latest available, so I did npm install -g npm.
It seemed to work OK (it did go through a install/upgrade process) but when I now do npm -v it says 6.14.9.
What is the 'correct' or proper way to get the latest npm on macOS? And I mean in a global way (for my entire coding environment) so that any NodeJS project in any directory will universally use the latest npm.
FYI I'm using macOS Catalina 10.15.6.
npm 7 ships with Node.js 15.x but is not yet the default latest within the npm registry. Confusing! If you want the latest 7.x version of npm, you need to specify that you want version 7: npm install -g npm#7. Otherwise, it will give you the latest 6.x release.
I recommend using nvm to manage your node versions. It allows switching between projects with different versions without running into version issues.
With it, you can use nvm install node to install the latest one, or nvm ls-remote to list available versions for install.
Instead of installing the latest version of an NPM package using
npm install x#latest
is there a way to view the latest stable version? something like this:
npm view x#stable version
I am looking for a programmatic/command line solution.
https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/view
Utilizing the following syntax returns the semver/value of the latest stable version only:
npm view <name> dist-tags.latest
You'll need to replace the <name> part with the actual package name.
Example:
npm view babel-cli dist-tags.latest
Running the command above currently prints 6.26.0 to the console, whilst the latest non-stable version available is the npm registry is currently 7.0.0-beta.3
Notes:
The command above will report the same version which would get installed when running:
npm install <name>#latest
Caveat: For either of the two commands to get the truly stable latest version they are reliant on the author/owner of the package having correctly managed their dist-tags. An excerpt from the docs (at the link provided) reads:
Publishing a package sets the latest tag to the published version unless the --tag option is used. For example, npm publish --tag=beta.
How do I install the latest available version of an npm package? '#latest' sure doesn't fetch the latest - I assume it means the latest stable or something.
I've been using a hack for a while because I cannot seem to find any info on this:
npm i extract-text-webpack-plugin#X
The 'X' causes it to fail and dump all possible versions where I then copy and paste the correct one instead of the 'X'. Kinda ridiculous.
I've tried 3rd party packages like 'latest-version' but they all fail to get the very latest version.
There doesn't seem to be an official to do this. For example at the time of writing the latest version of extract-text-webpack-plugin is 2.0.0-beta.4. However doing:
npm i extract-text-webpack-plugin#latest
Will install '1.0.1'
I can see the latest version by doing
npm info pkg versions --json (without --json it will cut off when there are many versions)
For lack of an actual tool I guess its going to be some grep work.
Version 1.0.1 is the 'latest' version of that package - published to the npm registry at least (tagged as latest)
From the docs for cli/dist-tag. Emphasis mine.
Tags can be used to provide an alias instead of version numbers.
For example, a project might choose to have multiple streams of development and use a different tag for each stream, e.g., stable, beta, dev, canary.
By default, the latest tag is used by npm to identify the current version of a package, and npm install (without any # or # specifier) installs the latest tag. Typically, projects only use the latest tag for stable release versions, and use other tags for unstable versions such as prereleases.
By default, other than latest, no tag has any special significance to npm itself.
If you want the beta releases, then install from GitHub, or use the tags explicitly.
$ npm install webpack/extract-text-webpack-plugin
This is made pretty clear by reading the manual.
Even more clear:
latest is an implicit tag, attached to any published version of a package that was not published with an explicit tag (--tag).
Installing xyz#latest simply looks up the release tagged as latest in the registry. In the case of this package, that's release 1.0.1. That's it. There's nothing special going on here. #latest does not pull the most recent version published to npm
The versions listed as betas were tagged differently. Obviously none of them were tagged as latest, so trying to use #latest to get one is pointless.
From the registry:
'dist-tags': { latest: '1.0.1', beta: '2.0.0-beta.4' }
Again, use the GitHub releases for the bleeding edge, or use the versions/tags explicitly.
$ npm install extract-text-webpack-plugin#beta
Here you go, made especially for you:
recent-version
recent-version-cli
Condense this into a shell script, and you're good to go:
$ npm install extract-text-webpack-plugin#$(recent-version extract-text-webpack-plugin)
Use npm update as long as you have the package installed:
npm update <package>
I've installed nodenv to manage versions of node and npm in my pc. Because when I try install packages like , angular-cli, webpack , typescript, angular2 and another, I get errors
FIRST QUESTION: Can an version node or npm produce error when i install a package?
Some packages tells things like: "The generated project has dependencies that require Node 4.x.x and NPM 3.x.x."
but they don't mention the exact version. by example Can a version of node 4.1.5 produce errors and not the version 4.0.5 ?
SECOND QUESTION:
I don't like these packages need be installed like global (-g) and the problems i see sometimes there are conflicts between global packages installed.
Example error:
npm WARN EPEERINVALID string-replace-loader#1.0.3 requires a peer of webpack#1.x.x || 2.x.x but none was installed.
PhantomJS not found on PATH
Downloading https://github.com/Medium/phantomjs/releases/download/v2.1.1/phantomjs-2.1.1-macosx.zip
but what about if two global packages use same global package, but some of they use a different version for every package?
Its up to npm package owners to define in their package.json all the upstream dependencies with a set of working versions which play well together ... challenge is as a package owner to make your package.json loose as possible regarding upstream dependencies to enable pulling in newer releases of these dependent packages yet tight enough that your published package still works
Often this is not the case which can lead to version mismatch invoked errors ... if possible always use most recent package releases this goes for nodejs itself as well
When package.json mentions versions such as 3.x.x it means it should work with any value of x.x so just chose the highest number to fit the pattern
Where possible avoid doing a global install unless it is for command line executables ... this is especially true for packages which your code pulls in as opposed to an executable centric package
UPDATE I am now able to successfully install this
npm install -g angular-cli
using the latest release of node
node --version
v6.5.0
so I suggest you upgrade your own project code and node version to avoid that pinned release which fails and work with the most current releases
I can see the version of generator-webapp that I want in github but when I do an npm install, it seems to be giving me an older version.
I note that the version number in the packages.json hasn't been updated in the last few changes. I don't know if that is a factor.
The version you install with npm must be published on npmjs.com
For example, last published generator-webapp version is 0.5.1
If you want the last version from github
Use that npm install git+https://isaacs#github.com/npm/npm.git (with the repo you want of course)