When I run:
npm install my-app
The app is installed into node_modules/my-app/...
I also tried
npm install -g my-app
But that doesn't work either.
How can I install the module straight into the current directory?
When I run:
npm install my-app
The app is installed into node_modules/my-app/...
I also tried
npm install -g my-app
But that doesn't work either.
How can I install the module straight into the current directory?
npm install
installs packages either locally or globally:
npm
looks for an existing folder called node_modules
in the current directory and creates a folder for each package you install in that folder. If it can't find an existing node_modules
folder here, it then looks through the current directory's ancestors until it finds one. If it can't find one, it creates one in the current directory.-g
(global) option, the package is installed in a global location. This location varies per Linux distribution, but /usr/local/lib/node_modules/packagename
is one example. CentOS7 uses /usr/lib/node_modules/packagename
.You should only use -g
when the package is something you'd want to use as a command.
Just like how global variables are kind of gross, but also necessary in some cases, global packages are important, but best avoided if not needed.
In general, the rule of thumb is:
- If you’re installing something that you want to use in your program, using
require('whatever')
, then install it locally, at the root of your project.- If you’re installing something that you want to use in your shell, on the command line or something, install it globally, so that its binaries end up in your
PATH
environment variable.
npm will not install a package's files directly into the current directory.
However, this is actually a good thing. It keeps dependencies' files separate from your app, and Node automatically searches the node_modules
folder when you require
something.
As @dalu said, if you want to have local packages, you'll need a package.json
file.
But to create the package.json
file, you will have to initialize npm by running npm init
.
You can then use npm install <module_name> --save[-dev]
.
This is how you can install a module to your current directory:
npm i --prefix ./ my-app
As others have said, the proper way is to configure your project via package.json
You ought to have a package.json
in your current directory.
Then write npm install <module_name> --save-dev
or npm install <module_name> --save
and it will install to the node_modules directory
I think the real question, what I and the OP would want, is to install my-app, like you would install an application , i.e. Install a top level application, that I am going to "use" as an application and not "require" as a module.
The fact that npm installs one level down from my application directory, is a purely aesthetic objection by new npm users.
When I started using npm (not so long ago), I solved it by having a git project as an installer, clone the git, run the install script, but now I am used to it and it does not bother me to have the app in the "wrong" folder any more.
Just setup some .sh, .bat or short cuts in the right place and your users, won't notice.
Using Windows 7. I had installed nodejs in a different folder (c:\develop\nodejs) to the one that was suggested while installing (C:\Program Files\nodejs) I am totally new to nodejs or npm. i may not be talking the nodejs or npm language. After installing nodejs. I had to do some commands like this in the main nodejs folder
npm init
then I was going to create a local directory (say c:\develop\nodejs\ upload2s3), and create a nodejs package to use as AWS lambda. For this, i went into the local directory (upload2s3), and tried
npm install aws-sdk
though the command behaved like it installed things, this did not do anything in my upload2s3 folder as it was empty. then i just tried this in my local folder.
npm init
this created some package.json, and may be few other files then i tried
npm install aws-sdk
then it created a node-modules folders inside my local folder (upload2s3) and installed the aws-sdk package. It also updated the package.json file
{
"name": "uploadtos32",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
"aws-sdk": "^2.448.0"
}
}