As I started to develop my first nodejs express application, I added many packages with npm.
I would like to know if there is a way to generate a package.json file containing all the current dependencies or the list of the current packages under the nodes_modules directory.
Just run npm init in the same directory as your project.
You'll be asked a list of questions (name, version, description, etc.) and once complete, it will generate a package.json file with all of the dependencies as currently installed in the node_modules directory.
Run npm list to see what you have installed. Run npm shrinkwrap to build a npm-shrinkwrap.json file, which you can use as a starting reference to build a proper package.json. My workflow is always to update package.json and then run npm install. I never run npm install foo to get some package because it creates risk of forgetting to add it to package.json and then having your application fail to start on deployment.
Updated to add: These days I do run npm install --save foo or npm install --save-dev foo since I have now decided the ~0.4.3 version numbers it adds to package.json are better than my former preference for 0.4.x since the ~ gives you a more precise minimum version number.
Related
I have a simple question that i cant seem to find the answer for. I cloned a git repo to my local machine.
When attempting to start node, I receive an error because i don't have the required npm dependencies installed. However, they are located in the packages.json file that was cloned.
I was wondering if there was a simple way to install the dependencies located in that file, without having to npm install for every individual package.
Within the directory of the package.json file, just run npm install. It will read package.json and install all dependencies. If you want to limit it to only non-dev dependencies, use npm install --only=production.
It appears that when I run npm link, it will install the project globally, and it seems to install devDependencies with it.
Is there a way to run npm link without devDependencies, perhaps with the --only=production flag?
In npm#4.x or lower
When you run npm link in other_module then you will get both dependencies and devDependencies symlinked.
The --production flag doesn't change anything, still creates a symlink to the whole directory
In npm#5.1.0
They fixed it!
If you remove node_modules and then do npm link --only=production, it runs an install before symlinking, and therefore devDependencies folder are indeed excluded.
This is currently not possible with npm link. The problem is, if you install only prod dependencies in that dependency, you're able to link it, but you're not able to develop on that dependency anymore (since missing devDependencies). And vice-versa: If you install devDependencies, you can't link anymore.
The solution: A package called npm-local-development at https://github.com/marcj/npm-local-development
It basically does the same thing as npm link, but works around the devDependency limitation by setting up a file watcher and syncs file changes automatically in the background, excluding all devDependencies/peerDependencies.
You install npm-local-development: npm i -g npm-local-development
You create file called .links.json in your root package.
You write every package name with its local relative folder path into it like so
{
"#shared/core": "../../my-library-repo/packages/core"
}
Open a console and run npm-local-development in that root package. Let it run in the background.
Disclaimer: I'm the author of this free open-source project.
A workaround I use is npm pack then point to the packed file in the example
What does running:
npm update
do if a npm-shrinkwrap.json file exists? Does it
Update the dependencies to match the shrinkwrap.json file
Update the dependencies to obey package.json (thereby disregarding the shrinkwrap.json file)
Not do anything
Thanks in advance
When you run
npm update
It will update the dependencies to obey package.json and will not care what is stored in npm-shrinkwrap.json even when node_modules folder is empty which means update command will install using package.json while install command will use npm-shrinkwrap.json.
It does not make any sense to obey the shrinkwrap file[ in most cases.]
Reason
It is supposed to be a snapshot of package at some stable point and this thing makes it perfect for production code.
There are no ^,~,latest etc. in shrinkwrap file.
And we also know that shrinkwrap file is not supposed to be tampered manually using editor
So all we can do is go back to some previous state of dependencies using this command and this thing can be achieved using npm install
However when you run
npm install
It follows shrinkwrap file.
But when you run
npm install newPkg --save
It will change both package.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json file as well
But when you run
npm update pkg --save
It will change only npm-shrinkwrap.json file and as I wrote before it will use package.json file to update according to semver
I've been using ember for a while and when I wanted to install the node dependencies of a project, I just needed to use npm install to create the folder node_modules with all the dependencies (as it's described in http://ember-cli.com/user-guide/).
Since I was using an old version of node I unisntalled node and npm and installed nvm with the versions node v5.0.0 and npm v3.3.6but now, when I try to use npm install to install the dependencies of a project as I used to do before, instead of the dependencies of the package.json file, I get many, many more from things I'm not sure where they come (I think they are dependencies that npm handles by itself in a globally way but now it's adding them to my project locally, but I'm not sure).
Why am I getting all those unknown (for me) dependencies?
Notice that, when I run ember new it generates the correct dependencies in node_modules but if I delete this folder and run npm install happens the same.
That's one of the changes introduced by npm v3.0:
Your dependencies will now be installed flat - by default. If
possible, all of your dependencies, and their dependencies, and their
dependencies will be installed in your project's node_modules folder
without nesting. Nesting will only occur when two or more modules have
conflicting dependencies.
Read more at http://www.felixrieseberg.com/npm-v3-is-out-and-its-a-really-big-deal-for-windows/
First experiences with node.js/npm. From the npm-install docs I read:
npm install takes 3 exclusive, optional flags which save or update the package version in your main package.json:
--save: Package will appear in your dependencies.
--save-dev: Package will appear in your devDependencies.
--save-optional: Package will appear in your optionalDependencies.
But I can't understand how it works in practice. If, for example, I run the command:
npm install bower --save-dev
I'd expect to find a package.json file in the current directory with devDependencies set to the installed version of bower, instead I find nothing.
Am I doing/expecting something wrong?
Using node v0.10.21, npm 1.3.12 on Ubuntu 12.04 x64
npm won't create package.json for you, but it will create the necessary dependencies for you as long as package.json exists and is legal JSON.
Create it like so
echo {} > package.json
Then, doing npm i --save whatever will add whatever#~x.x.x as a dependency as expected. The file needs to be there, and be JSON, that's it.
npm install only fetches the packages from the registry and puts them in your ./node_modules. It updates your package.json to register this new dependency if you tell it to.
Your package.json has three dependency blocks :
dependencies - these are needed for your app to run.
devDependencies - these are needed for the developer environments for your app (this is how your teammates can get the packages that you recently added to the project. The dependencies listed here are not required on production hosts.)
optionalDependencies - These packages are optional and it is OK if npm cant reolve the package to install. i.e a build failure does not cause npm install to fail (Note however, that your app should handle cases where the package cannot be found.)
Here is the behavior with the different usages of the npm install command:
$ npm install async #Only installs, no change made to package.json
$ npm install async --save #Installs, adds async#version to dependencies block
$ npm install async --save-dev # Installs, adds async#version to the devDependencies block
$ npm install async --save-optional # Installs, adds async#version to the optionalDependencies block