Few npm commands I found very useful during development.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
npm -v |
show current npm version installed |
npm init |
inizialize npm project into the current folder, creates package.json
|
npm --help |
show npm help manual page |
npm list |
show a tree of every package found in the current folder |
npm list -g |
same as above ^^, but search also in global packages |
npm list -g --depth=0 |
same as above ^^, but do not show every package’s dependencies |
npm list [package name] |
show a tree of every instance found in the current folder of that specific package |
npm install |
install all packages in package.json
|
npm install [package name] |
install a package as dependency* |
npm install [package name] --save |
install a package as dependency (same as above) |
npm install [package name] --save-dev |
install a package as dev dependency |
npm install --save username/repo#branch-name-or-commit-or-tag |
install package from GitHub repository |
npm uninstall [package name] |
uninstall a package |
npm update |
update top level packages |
npm update --depth [number of levels] |
update dependencies of dependencies packages |
npm update [package name] -g |
update global package installation |
npm docs [package name] |
show README, official website, of the given package |
npm outdated |
show packages that should be updated |
🧨 !important
By default, in node@5 the--saveflag is implicit.
Therefore running these two commands you will have the same result:
npm i lodash
# is the same as
npm i lodash --save
they add a new line in your package.json into the dependecies object:
{
"name": "test-project",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"author": "Giulia Chiola",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
"lodash": "^4.17.21"
}
}
Aliases
| Alias | Command |
|---|---|
npm i |
npm install |
npm i [package name] -D |
npm install [package name] --save-dev |
npm ls |
npm list |
npm up [package name] |
npm update [package name] |
npm un [package name] |
npm uninstall [package name] |
Config
Set initial values for npm projects:
npm config set init-author-name "Your name"
npm config set init-author-email "your@email.com"
npm config set init-license MIT
⚡️ Bonus tip
npm-check is a useful tool to check for outdated, incorrect, and unused dependencies
📚 More info
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