Everything lives in the root setting. Check npm help config for more
on configuration options.
root/.npm/foo is where the stuff for package foo would go.
root/.npm/foo/1.0.0/package the contents of the tarball containing foo
version 1.0.0
root/.npm/foo/1.0.0/main.js Generated file that exports the main module in
foo. This is a shim, not a symbolic link, so that relative paths will work
appropriately.
root/.npm/foo/active symlink to the active version.
root/foo-1.0.0.js shim to .npm/foo/1.0.0/main.js
root/foo.js shim to .npm/foo/active/main.js
root/.npm/foo/1.0.0/dependencies links to the modules that foo depends upon.
This is loaded into the require path first in the foo shims.
root/.npm/foo/1.0.0/dependson links to the package folders that foo depends
on. This is here so that npm can access those packages programmatically.
root/.npm/foo/1.0.0/dependents links to the packages that depend upon foo.
root/.npm/.cache the cache folder.
root/.npm/.cache/foo/1.0.0/package.json the parsed package.json for foo@1.0.0
root/.npm/.cache/foo/1.0.0/package.tgz the tarball of foo@1.0.0
root/.npm/.cache/foo/1.0.0/package the untouched pristine copy of foo@1.0.0