npmi

NodeJS package that gives a simplier API to npm install (programatically installs things)

npmi versions scheme

• ^1: uses npm@^2
• ^2: uses npm@^3
• ^3: uses npm@^5
• ^4: uses global-npm (meaning npm is no longer a dependency of npmi)

⚠️ Be advised that npm in its v5+ will symlink local modules from the destination directory to the actual module directory instead of "installing" them old-school style (which is a breaking change regarding the previous npm versions)

Options

options.name

Type: String Optional: true

If you don't specify a name in options, but just a path, npmi will do the same as if you were at this path in a terminal and executing npm install
Otherwise, it will install the module specified by this name like npm install module-name does.

options.version

Type: String Optional: true Default 'latest'

Desired version for installation

options.path

Type: String Optional: true Default '.'

Desired location for installation (note that if you specified /some/foo/path, npm will automatically create a node_modules sub-folder at this location, resulting in /some/foo/path/node_modules). So don't specify the node_modules part in your path

options.forceInstall

Type: Boolean Optional: true Default false

If true, npmi will install options.name module even though it has already been installed.
If false, npmi will check if the module is already installed, if it is, it will also check if the installed version is equal to options.version, otherwise, it will install options.name@options.version

options.localInstall

Type: Boolean Optional: true Default false

Allows npmi to install local module that are not on npm registry. If, you want to install a local module by specifying its full path in options.name, you need to set this to true.

options.npmLoad

Type: Object Optional: true Default {loglevel: 'silent'}

This object is given to npm and allows you to do some fine-grained npm configurations.
It is processed by npm like command-line arguments but within an Object map (npm-config)

Usage example

var npmi = require('npmi');
var path = require('path');

console.log(npmi.NPM_VERSION); // prints the installed npm version used by npmi


var options = {
	name: 'your-module',	// your module name
	version: '0.0.1',		// expected version [default: 'latest']
	path: '.',				// installation path [default: '.']
	forceInstall: false,	// force install if set to true (even if already installed, it will do a reinstall) [default: false]
	npmLoad: {				// npm.load(options, callback): this is the "options" given to npm.load()
		loglevel: 'silent'	// [default: {loglevel: 'silent'}]
	}
};
npmi(options, function (err, result) {
	if (err) {
		if 		(err.code === npmi.LOAD_ERR) 	console.log('npm load error');
		else if (err.code === npmi.INSTALL_ERR) console.log('npm install error');
		return console.log(err.message);
	}

	// installed
	console.log(options.name+'@'+options.version+' installed successfully in '+path.resolve(options.path));
});

Acknowledgements

This work has been done in the context of the HEADS Project

Contributors

• lukaskollmer
• karanjthakkar