How to set custom location for local installation of npm package

Question

Is it possible to specify a custom package destination for npm install  either through a command flag or environment variable   By default  npm local installs end up in node modules within the current directory  but I want it to install into node modules within a different directory  for example vendor node modules  How can I make that happen

User · Answer

After searching for this myself wanting several projects with shared dependencies to be DRYer, I’ve found:

Installing locally is the Node way for anything you want to use via require()
Installing globally is for binaries you want in your path, but is not intended for anything via require()
Using a prefix means you need to add appropriate bin and man paths to $PATH
npm link (info) lets you use a local install as a source for globals

? stick to the Node way and install locally

ref:

Perfect summary from isaacs
npm FAQ: "node_modules" is the name of my deity's arch-rival, and a Forbidden Word in my religion. Can I configure npm to use a different folder? ;-)

User · Answer

TL DR You can do this by using the --prefix flag and the --global  flag  pje friendbear   foo   npm install bower -g --prefix   vendor node modules bower 0 7 0  Users pje foo vendor node modules bower   Even though this is a  quot global quot  installation  installed bins won t be accessible through the command line unless   foo vendor node modules exists in PATH  TL DR Every configurable attribute of npm can be set in any of six different places  In order of priority   Command-Line Flags     --prefix   vendor node modules Environment Variables  NPM CONFIG PREFIX   vendor node modules User Config File        HOME  npmrc or userconfig param Global Config File      PREFIX etc npmrc or userconfig param Built-In Config File   path to npm itself npmrc Default Config         node modules npmconf config-defs js  By default  locally-installed packages go into   node modules  global ones go into the prefix config variable   usr local by default   You can run npm config list to see your current config and npm config edit to change it  PS In general  npm s documentation is really helpful  The folders section is a good structural overview of npm and the config section answers this question

User · Answer

On Windows 7 for example  the following set of commands operations could be used    Create an personal environment variable  double backslashes are mandatory    Variable name   NPM HOME  Variable value  C   SomeFolder  SubFolder     Now  set the config values to the new folders  examplary file names     Set the npm folder    npm config set prefix   NPM HOME   npm    Set the npm-cache folder   npm config set cache   NPM HOME   npm-cache    Set the npm temporary folder    npm config set tmp   NPM HOME   temp   Optionally  you can purge the contents of the original folders before the config is changed    Delete the npm-cache    npm cache clear List the npm modules    npm -g ls Delete the npm modules npm -g rm name of package1 name of package2

User · Answer

For OSX  you can go to your user s  HOME  probably  Users yourname   and  if it doesn t already exist  create an  npmrc file  a file that npm uses for user configuration   and create a directory for your npm packages to be installed in  e g    Users yourname npm   In that  npmrc file  set  prefix  to your new npm directory  which will be where  globally  installed npm packages will be installed  these  global  packages will  obviously  be available only to your user account     In  npmrc   prefix   HOME  npm  Then run this command from the command line   npm config ls -l  It should give output on both your own local configuration and the global npm configuration  and you should see your local prefix configuration reflected  probably near the top of the long list of output   For security  I recommend this approach to configuring your user account s npm behavior over chown-ing your  usr local folders  which I ve seen recommended elsewhere

User · Answer

If you want this in config  you can set npm config like so   npm config set prefix    pwd  vendor node modules    or  npm config set prefix   HOME vendor node modules    Check your config with  npm config ls -l  Or as  pje says and use the --prefix flag

[node.js] How to set custom location for local installation of npm package?

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