I am writing a library and need to know what will happen if a user tries to run npm install -S X in their project before a package.json file exists.
I just tried this on Windows, and sure enough, NPM did not barf and went along with it's business but when the install command completed, there was still no node_modules folder nor a package.json file.
Does anyone know what is expected to happen? I assume I should require the users of my library to run "npm init" before running "npm install X" ?
Looks NPM does throw an error at the end of the install -
ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'package.json'
but I wonder if that prevents the install process from create a node_modules dir, and actually putting the dependency in there.
npm install without the -g flag will walk up the folder tree checking for folders that contain either a package.json or a node_modules folder.
If either of those conditions are met, then that folder will be treated as the current directory for the purpose of the npm commands you are running. If no such folder is found, then the current folder is used.
As you noted, a node_modules folder will be created and after the package is loaded into the cache it will be unpacked into that folder.
Related
can anybody tells me what are those errors about and how to fix them?
Everytime i try to install something in node with npm these errors show up in terminalenter image description here
ENOENT stands for basically "Error, No Entry". this means it was looking for the package.json file and it couldn't find it.The fields mentioned below are also not found because they are a part of the package.json file
so create a package.json file in the current current directory using
npm init
and add the required content in the required fields
i would also recommend you to install the modules locally into the directory of the particular project using
npm install express --save
Hope my answer helps,
cheers
The error you are facing is because you do not have package.json file. Npm installs the package in a node_modules/ subfolder, but warns you that there is no package.json file. If you want to manage localy installed npm packages you should create a package.json file. Start by creating an empty folder:
$ mkdir myapp
$ cd myapp
and then create a new package.json executing
$ npm init
Answer (or skip) all questions and at the end a brand new package.json will be created.
You can get more information from the Getting started articles in npm documentation: Working with package.json
I've installed Node.js for Windows and I'm trying to install a package via npm. The command prompt is in the directory of the project (C:\Users\username\Desktop\NodeTest), which contains a single helloworld.js file. Upon typing 'npm install express', I receive the following error:
ENOENT: no such file or direcotry, open 'C:\Users\username\package.json
I'm attempting this from a clean install and cmd is running as admin.
Any ideas?
I was facing the same issue. I firstly delete my node_modules and delete the cache by following command:
rm -rf node_modules && npm cache clean --force
then I delete the package-lock.json file from my project and then hit npm install in command prompt and it works.
As already pointed out by Subburaj this is because you are missing a package.json.
Just run npm init to initialize that file for you; afterwards it should work.
If you are working on a Windows machine using Vagrant/VM, there's a chance that symlinks are the culprit for your problem. To determine if that is the case, simply copy your package.json and package-lock.json into a test directory that is not mounted/shared between OSs.
mkdir /tmp/symlinktest
cd {{your directory with your package*.json}}
cp package*.json /tmp/symlinktest
cd /tmp/symlinktest
npm install
If this results in a successful install, you'll need to either exclude the node_modules directory from the mount (there's various articles on doing this, however I can't say I've had success) or run npm install outside the mounted volume.
I deleted the package-lock.json and It worked for me.
Basically I was Offline while I tried to install with npm, so go online and try
npm install again
Check the project folder which you opened in microsoft visual code. Generally you are not in the right path so npm is not able to search the package.json ... My project was in Document/hostel/hostel .. I opened Document/hostel ... So npm tried to find the package.json in Documents folder .. When i entered one level inside to Document/hostel/hostel .. it was fixed.
In terminal, I entered the command cd /Users/MyUserName/Google/Google Drive/Coding then entered the command npm install underscore. So I figured the underscore module would be saved under my Coding folder; however, it keeps saving under the directory: /Users/MyUserName/node_modules/
How do I change the setting so that when ever I change my directory in terminal and enter a npm install command, the module gets installed in the respective changed directory?
From the documentation:
Starting at the $PWD, npm will walk up the folder tree checking for a folder that contains either a package.json file, or a node_modules folder. If such a thing is found, then that is treated as the effective "current directory" for the purpose of running npm commands. (This behavior is inspired by and similar to git's .git-folder seeking logic when running git commands in a working dir.)
If no package root is found, then the current folder is used.
So it seems the package is installed under your home folder because it already contains a node_modules folder. If you remove that the install should go into the current folder.
Alternatively: Add a node_modules folder to the current folder.
I am doing a small Sinatra project and I want to use Gulp.
I have node(v0.12.0), npm(2.13.1), gulp(3.9.0) installed. I am in my project directory but when I try install a package like "npm install gulp-sass --save-dev", it doesn't create any "node_modules" folder in my project directory. It seems to be installing the package in my user home directory. Anything I am doing wrong?
From the npm documentation:
Starting at the $PWD, npm will walk up the folder tree checking for a folder that contains either a package.json file, or a node_modules folder. If such a thing is found, then that is treated as the effective "current directory" for the purpose of running npm commands. (This behavior is inspired by and similar to git's .git-folder seeking logic when running git commands in a working dir.)
If no package root is found, then the current folder is used.
I'm trying to test Gulp and I find this problem.
I installed Gulp globally with: sudo npm install -g gulp.
Then I was created the folder: mkdir my-gulp
cd my-gulp
And the I try to do this: sudo npm install --save-dev gulp
It seems work fine, no errors, but my folder my-gulp continues empty.
I can see in console, this line:
gulp#3.8.6 ../../node_modules/gulp
And I thinkig the problem is here "../../", I think it must be "gulp#3.8.6 node_modules/gulp"
What do you think? Maybe is something about $PATH?
First, you should never run npm via sudo for local packages. (In fact, you shouldn't run it as root ever, but that's a different, more complex issue to solve.)
Second, you need to initialize NPM before you can install packages. It sounds like you didn't do this.
There's two ways:
If you have an existing package.json, which contains the required information about a project, you can copy it into your folder, then edit in a text editor of your choice to get started. If the package.json includes existing dependencies, you can either remove them, or run npm i in the folder to install them.
If you are starting fresh, run npm init to set up a new package.
Once you have a valid package.json, you can install packages into your application.
As to why you are seeing ../../gulp, I'm guessing you have a package.json further up the file tree somewhere.