Nodejs npm command list | npm checklist example

Nodejs npm command list | npm checklist example

This tutorial list out all frequently used npm commands in a nodejs application. You can also check other posts on npm command deprecate option is deprecated

Nodejs Npm commands list

Below are command list for use with nodejs applications

How to find the npm version

npm version command list out all versions of nodejs project and dependent tools versions.

B:\Workspace\fullstackapp\backend-nodejs>npm version
{
'backend-nodejs': '1.0.0',
npm: '8.12.0',
node: '14.17.0',
v8: '8.4.371.23-node.63',
uv: '1.41.0',
zlib: '1.2.11',
brotli: '1.0.9',
ares: '1.17.1',
modules: '83',
nghttp2: '1.42.0',
napi: '8',
llhttp: '2.1.3',
openssl: '1.1.1k',
cldr: '38.1',
icu: '68.2',
tz: '2020d',
unicode: '13.0'
}

To know only the npm version

B:\Workspace\fullstackapp\backend-nodejs>npm --v
8.12.0

How to create aCreate a nodejs project

Create a project folder and run the below command to create and initialize a nodejs project. It stores all the

npm init

It asks prompt to add details to enter by the user as given below

  • package name
  • Project version
  • Description
  • License
  • Entry point of a project
  • Author details.

This command creates a package.json file in the project folder

To avoid the prompt, run the below command to use default values.

npm init -y

It creates a new project folder with package.json that contains default properties.

How to install and uninstall dependencies in nodejs application

  • To install all dependencies defined in package.json
npm install

This command does the following things

  • Download package.json direct and indirect dependencies into node_modules of a current project.

  • Create and update the package-lock.json file

  • To install a single package dependency

npm install package

The package name is the name of the node package

For example, Run the below command to install lodash

npm install lodash
  • To uninstall single or all packages

Below uninstalls all packages

npm uninstall

It uninstalls a single package

npm install lodash

Install packages globally in node module

option -gor --global uses to install the node packages globally.

npm install -g @angular/cli
or
npm install --global @angular/cli

This command does the following things

  • Download package dependency into node_modules of a current user npm global node_modules location, here the location is specific to OS. In WIndows, The locaiton is %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules
  • Create and update the package-lock.json file in the user’s global location
  • To uninstall global packages
npm uninstall -g @angular/cli
or
npm uninstall --global @angular/cli

How to install dev packages in node application

option -dor --save-dev uses to install the node packages as a devDependencies in package.json. These packages are useful during development and it has no dependency on a production build.

This is mainly used for tools and frameworks to develop and test cases for a node application

npm install --save-dev @angular/cli

This adds below content to package.json file

"name": "myapp",
"version": "1.0.0",
"dependencies": {
  "my_dep": "^1.0.0",
  "another_dep": "~2.2.0"
},
"devDependencies" : {
  "angular/cli": "^12.1.0",
}

This command does the following things

  • Download package dependency into node_modules of a current project node_modules location.

  • Create and update the package-lock.json file in the current project

  • To uninstall dev packages

or
npm uninstall --save-dev @angular/cli

Npm local global location

npm root command lists the location based on global, user, or project level

npm root —location=global/user/project

  • global points global npm location that installs dependencies to node_modules.
C:\Users\abc>npm root --location=global
C:\Users\abc\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules
  • user: user npm location
C:\Users\abc>npm root --location=user
C:\Users\abc\node_modules
  • project: location of the current project
B:\Workspace\backend-nodejs>npm root --location=project
B:\Workspace\backend-nodejs\node_modules

Npm update command list

packages can be updated using the update command. It basically changes the version of the package to the latest

  • upgrade all packages to the latest.
npm update
  • To update a single package
npm update package
  • To upgrade global packages
npm update --global

Npm installed package list commands

  • list all packages in a project
npm list

  • check and show outdated packages

    npm outdated

Clean packages

The below command removes the local npm package cache

npm cache clean

npm script commands for execution

Below commands used to execute different scripts based on project

  • To Start development web server
npm run start
or
npm start
  • To build application for production
npm run build
or
npm build
  • To execute unit and other test cases
npm run test
or
npm test