I'm running an educational project where kids needs to install node and some packages themselves before they start. I want to make it super simple for them to do themselves. Right now it's a matter of:
Download and install Node as a .msi or .pkg
Run some npm install command in a terminal which is less friendly.
Is there any way to bundle some packages with node and create one simple download that will just work?
I know that node webkit is able to do what you need, and even more; if you opt on it, you will probably find other useful features for your purpose.
Related
I have an interesting question. let us say that I'm going on a holiday where I don't have access to the internet. I happen to bring my laptop with me so that I can write some code. Me being an idiot or smart depending on perspective, I usually install my node modules using the global flag. I suspect that this adds the module locally.
My Question.
Is it possible to npm install a module locally installed into a new project without having access to the internet?
if so, what command does one run?
This is another way.
You will need to use the npm install command with the --offline flag, like this:
npm install --offline \<nameOfModule>
I've been working on a lot of different node.js projects. All of them have their own package.json file with their own needed packages. Every time I run node <mainfile>.js, npm installs all the packages to the project directory. Like so: C:/Users/me/Projects/<project-name>/node_modules.
This isn't a very big problem, but is there a way to make npm use/install to the global packages? Like in C:/Users/me/node_modules?
One of the advantages I could see this having is less storage being taken up, although it isn't a huge advantage.
I would assume that if it is possible, it would require you to add/modify something in the package.json file.
While looking into answers for this question, I've seen people saying that you should avoid installing packages globally. Can you also explain why this is a bad practice andy why I should avoid it?
Install Package Globally
NPM installs global packages into //local/lib/node_modules folder.
Apply -g in the install command to install package globally.
npm install -g express
To answer your other question
The obvious short answer is that your project depends on them. If your
project depends on a package, it should be documented in package.json
so that you can guarantee that it is installed when someone types npm
install. Otherwise, you’ll need to add extra steps in your README file
to inform anyone else who clones your project that they need to
install each of your global dependencies as well
Finally, even if someone installs the correct version of Browserify
for your project, they may be working on a different project that
requires a different version of that same tool, which would cause
conflicts. Several of your own projects might even use different
versions of Browserify because you updated it when you started a new
project and didn’t go back to make sure that earlier projects were
updated to work with the new version. These conflicts can be avoided.
You can only have one version installed globally. This causes problems if you have different projects that rely on different versions of a package.
Why not to install all packages globally
It's not really you shouldn't install a package globally it's more knowing what packages to install globally. The packages to install globally are ones that your project/application does not depend on.
How to identify a package that my project depends on
A package that your project is depended on is a package that your application could not run without like axios or express (an express API could not run without express installed or a web page that makes API requests with axios cant make those requests without axios) but something like http-server or minify is not needed to run the application so it can be installed globally.
Why is it important to have locally installed packages
It's important/good practice because if you are working with a group of developers or someone gets your work from Github they can just run npm install and get all the packages with out having to find all the packages them selfs.
How can I remove the node modules folder
You could technically globally install every package but I would sudjest not to. Node and many other developers know this is an issue that they have created a solution for in deno "the node killer".
I would recommend not installing all packages globally and if the node modules folder really annoys you try deno it fixes a lot of things that node developers hate.
Is there a way to install MongoDB only inside a directory through some sort of a script?
An idea is to use it as a dependency in a node.js project. After npm install on the project, npn would download mongo binaries, and install them into project's folder. Later this binaries could be accessible from node.js script which would control them like start the database. This should run on standard platforms (Win, Linux, Unix) and should be hidden from user.
I found a way for unattended install. But this would be installed for whole system and I'm not sure what changes It'll make to windows. Also this is platform dependent solution. I'd welcome some sort of unified node, like npm package.
This runs MongoDB servers, and is used for driver testing.
You'd need to download the binary which you could do via m. You could also do this by hand.
Hi,
I have finished to code my website using lesscss client side and now want to compile less so I have donwloaded node.js. My website is running on localhost and I want first to know:
where I have to install node.js
what I have to do next ( commands lines tools, commands lines etc. ).
If someone can help me because I'm a newbie in this field.
Thanks.
You can install the LESS compiler directly from npm.
Install node.js. Go to this page and download the installer for your platform.
If you're on Windows, download the .msi; if you are on OSX, download the .pkg file. Whenever possible, download the 64-bit version (unless your system is running only 32-bit hardware and software). If you are on Linux and you want to use package managers, see this page.
Once you have node.js installed, you should also have npm, which is node.js Package Manager. You can open a terminal/console and run npm -v to make sure everything is installed correctly.
Eventually, you can install the LESS compiler by simply executing:
npm install -g less
(note: on OSX and Linux you may need to run this with sudo: sudo npm install -g less).
The LESS compiler will then be available as the lessc command. See examples here.
PS: Some GUIs also exist for simplifying working with lessc. Google "less gui windows/mac/linux" to see many results, like this one for Mac.
it's not mentioned what to do after installing node.js and installing less compiler on your node.
Go to your folder where you are hosting your project locally and then type styles. less styles.css. This should initiate the conversion from less to CSS at the node command prompt.
I have recently started playing with node.js, but I got lost in a big mess of different versions of node, npm, nvm and other packages. I don't know what is installed globally and what is installed locally (and if locally, how do the packages know which versions of node they can use?).
I'd like to have some summary of what different installation options do. In specific:
Where is node installed when I use nvm, apt-get, make install or when using other ways?
Is it a good idea to install node locally?
Why does nvm change my ~/.profile instead of installing itself in some system-recognizable bin folder?
I saw that nvm can install different versions of node alongside each other - why would I want to do this? I can install them locally instead, right?
Where does npm install packages? I saw that it checks packages aganist version of Node, what happens to these packages when node is upgraded?
In what cases it is better to use global or local installation? Where should I put my packages then (and where they put by default?)
What's the difference between npm, nvm and nave?
EDIT: There is a lot of ways to install node here, this makes me even more confused...
Where is node installed when I use nvm, apt-get, make install or when
using other ways?
apt-get installs all the software, not only node, on the file system following the Ubuntu convention where to store binaries, man files, shared files, logs, etc. However, using apt-get you'll have only the certain version of node which is determined by the distribution release cycle. If there are updates available they will be installed with apt-get update; apt-get upgrade However, the newest version of some app won't be available until it makes its way into the distribution. For example node v0.x.y might not be available until Ubuntu 13.10 the only way to get will be to install it manually. The good side of apt-get or other system package manager is that it manages updates and package removal for you. It stores all the data about the software package in it's own database. You can always delete the node with apt-get remove node and that's it.
make install install the package manually, but it is considered harmful. Never use the make install mainly because you won't be able to delete the package easily, you'll have to read the Makefile and manually delete all the files installed by it. In a situation where you want to use make install there is always checkinstall available. It's a software which creates a native package and registers it with the system. When you decide to delete the package you could do this with one command instead of many. wiki link; Ubuntu guide on checkinstall
Now nvm script is a node version manager. It is very helpful and easy to use. It allows you to have multiple versions of node to be installed and used in parallel on your machine. It doesn't compile the node from source like make install so it is very fast. it doesn't depend on your distribution release cycle so you have access to all the node versions available at the moment. nvm downloads precompiled binaries and is perfect for general use. It stores it's node files in it's own folder locally so in case you want to compare something between the different node versions it's easy to do.
Is it a good idea to install node locally?
If by locally you mean using nvm then it's very good for development, and testing. Not sure about production performance implications and benefits between having it's installed from source or using the nvm precompiled binaries. I use nvm for development and installed from source in production. However if someone could explain this issue any further I'll be glad to learn more.
Why does nvm change my ~/.profile instead of installing itself in some system-recognizable bin folder?
Because nvm isn't an executable. It is a set of bash functions which are sourced by shell and could be used separately. You can invoke nvm_ls and nvm_ls_remote and others without the main script after is is sourced into your shell. What the main script does it parses the command line arguments and pretty prints the output in case of for example `nvm_ls_remote'.
in the ~/.profile the following line is added
[[ -s /home/USERNAME/.nvm/nvm.sh ]] && . /home/USERANME/.nvm/nvm.sh # This loads NVM
loads all the functions into your shell
I saw that nvm can install different versions of node alongside each other - why would I want to do this? I can install them locally instead, right?
You can install them locally using make install or checkinstall but you will have to make aliases for them like node_0.8.1, node_0.8.2, node_0.10.1 , etc. AND you'll have to manage new aliases, installing all the packages, removing them in case you don't need them YOURSELF. These are a tedious and boring tasks which could be error prone sometimes. nvm does all of these tasks for you for free.
You want to do this to test your app under the different versions of node. For example you are good and tested under the v0.8 but you want to use the new features of the v0.10.3 how do you do that ? You have to download the source code, compile, make an alias and run your app. you could do this with just nvm install 0.10.3 and run your app.
Sometimes you have to support more than one version of node. For example some hosted environments are not keeping in touch with the latest release and only have v0.6 Your clients which use your server app might encounter a bug specific to this version. When you fix the bug you have to reproduce it first. Using nvm installation of the v0.6 is one line and half a minute. And you can check all the versions you want this way easily. Test your code under different versions and make sure you are good to go.
Where does npm install packages? I saw that it checks packages aganist version of Node, what happens to these packages when node is upgraded?
If you are using nvm the packages which are installed globally with -g option are tied to the relevant node version. When you switch between versions with nvm use 0.x you have to either install the packages again or use nvm copy-packages <version> to use the packages from in the current version. If the packages are installed locally then it depends. package.json should contain info on the dependencies of the app. If it says node: '0.8' and you just updated to 0.9 you might encounter troubles. For example the behavior of process.nextTick was changed in the latest releases compared to 0.6. So be careful.
In what cases it is better to use global or local installation? Where should I put my packages then (and where they put by default?)
It depends. For development nvm is superior in my opinion. For me it is convenient and simple. For production there are might be some performance implications when using the precompiled binary files not optimized for your system. It would be better to ask this as a separate question so the people with the relevant experience could answer.
What's the difference between npm, nvm and nave?
npm is a node package manager -> link It contains userland packages developed by other people. These packages are not part of the node core. npm is used for publishing your code and dependency management. If your app requires other app developed by other people it is convenient to publish it via npm.
nvm is a node version manager it does a completely separate thing. It gives you an ability to very easily switch between node versions on the same machine and manages all he changes in your $PATH environment variable.
Consider nvm as update manager for the Operation System and npm as a manager of the applications for this system. Well, this comparison isn't precise but just came upon my mind
nave is basically the same as nvm but it is an executable whereas nvm is a script which is sourced into the shell. Each system has it's own benefits. You could make a separate question regarding it's use cases and differences.
My answer isn't 100% complete and contains a lot of subjective personal opinions. However, I hope I'll at least make some points more clear so you might proceed with other more specific questions. Btw, this question list of yours could be asked as separate questions. I believe stackoverflow gives best results when specific questions are asked separately and more people with relevant experience could contribute.
If you run
npm install
in folder with package.json, it installs all packages localy (in the current folder).
Also, npm default install packeges local. To install it globaly - use -g flag:
npm install -g <package>
Execute next command:
npm config list
You see all npm config description.
You can install modules in the local context of your application with
npm install modulename
In this case the module will be installed to your node_modules folder of your application.
Otherwise you can install a module in the global context with
npm install -g modulename
In this case the module will be installed for the hole system environment usually at /usr/local/bin/modulename.
The global installation makes sense for modules you need in more than one application, like express or node-inspector.