npm <command> [args]
npm is the package manager for the Node JavaScript platform. It puts modules in place so that node can find them, and manages dependency conflicts intelligently.
It is extremely configurable to support a wide variety of use cases. Most commonly, it is used to publish, discover, install, and develop node programs.
Run npm help to get a list of available commands.
You probably got npm because you want to install stuff.
Use npm install blerg to install the latest version of "blerg". Check out
npm-install for more info. It can do a lot of stuff.
Use the npm search command to show everything that's available.
Use npm ls to show everything you've installed.
If a package references to another package with a git URL, npm depends on a preinstalled git.
If one of the packages npm tries to install is a native node module and requires compiling of C++ Code, npm will use node-gyp for that task. For a Unix system, node-gyp needs Python, make and a buildchain like GCC. On Windows, Python and Microsoft Visual Studio C++ are needed. Python 3 is not supported by node-gyp. For more information visit the node-gyp repository and the node-gyp Wiki.
See npm-folders to learn about where npm puts stuff.
In particular, npm has two modes of operation:
prefix/lib/node_modules and bins are installed in prefix/bin../node_modules, and bins are installed to ./node_modules/.bin.Local mode is the default. Use -g or --global on any command to
operate in global mode instead.
If you're using npm to develop and publish your code, check out the following help topics:
package.json.npm link to do this.npm installnpm publish command to upload your code to the registry.npm is extremely configurable. It reads its configuration options from 5 places.
--key val. All keys take a value, even if they
are booleans (the config parser doesn't know what the options are at
the time of parsing). If no value is provided, then the option is set
to boolean true.npm_config_. For example, export npm_config_key=val.userconfig option is set in the cli
or env, then that will be used instead.globalconfig option is set in the cli, env, or user config,
then that file is parsed instead.See npm-config for much much more information.
Patches welcome!
npm-coding-style if you plan to submit code.
You don't have to agree with it, but you do have to follow it.Contributors are listed in npm's package.json file. You can view them
easily by doing npm view npm contributors.
If you would like to contribute, but don't know what to work on, read the contributing guidelines and check the issues list.
When you find issues, please report them:
Be sure to include all of the output from the npm command that didn't work
as expected. The npm-debug.log file is also helpful to provide.
You can also look for isaacs in #node.js on irc://irc.freenode.net. He will no doubt tell you to put the output in a gist or email.
Isaac Z. Schlueter :: isaacs :: @izs :: [email protected]
Last modified October 26, 1985 Found a typo? Send a pull request!