NPM Pocket Guide For Busy People

Definition

NPM Node Package Manager

Purpose

Store, install, uninstall, update, any Node packages (modules)

Overview

NPM maintains a registry of Node packages at npmjs.org, and offers a command line interface (CLI) to manage them from your local computer, or server.

Important:

• You don't need a node-based project to used NPM. Installing node just for NPM is also ok
• For using node on the web, you'll need a web hosting provider with node support, DigitalOcean for instance
• You might not need a web hosting privider with node support after all, using node/npm for tasks like compilation can be done locally, and then deploy processed files, it depends on what you want node for

Source: https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/what-is-npm

Install

NPM comes with Node, see Node Pocket Guide

Example

## create package.json
$ npm init

## install gulp (a package) globally
$ npm install --global gulp

## install gulp locally as one of your project's dependencies
$ npm install --save-dev gulp

Options:

• npm init looks for an existing package.json file, if not, it creates a new one
• npm install installs the package's API to node_modules folder, so Node can run it as a javascript module
• --global installs the package's CLI globally, so Node can run it as a CLI
• --save-dev saves all package's details to package.json so you can keep track of all installations

See all npm install options https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/install

Also important

When deploying a website, you don't ship node_modules folder, nor track it with Git, use package.json instead. When cloning the project you (or your colleagues) must run npm install from their console, and NPM will install every package listed on package.json. This allows lightweight sharing and reproducible setup. Basically you are sharing an "installer" in package.json.

Source: https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/installing-npm-packages-locally

Update

## update npm
$ npm cache clean
$ sudo npm install -g npm@latest

## If your npm is broken
$ curl -L https://www.npmjs.org/install.sh | sh

Reference

https://www.npmjs.com/