How do you prevent install of devDependencies NPM modules for Node js package json

Question

I have this in my package json file  shortened version         name    a-module      version    0 0 1      dependencies          coffee-script          gt   1 1 3          devDependencies          stylus                 gt   0 17 0          I am using NPM version 1 1 1 on Mac 10 6 8   When I run the following command from the project root  it installs both the dependencies and devDependencies   npm install   I was under the impression that this command installed the devDependencies   npm install --dev   How do I make it so npm install only installs dependencies  so production environment only gets those modules   while something like npm install --dev installs both dependencies and devDependencies

User · Answer

The new option is   npm install --only prod   If you want to install only devDependencies   npm install --only dev

User · Answer

Need to add to chosen answer  As of now  npm install in a package directory  containing package json  will install devDependencies  whereas npm install -g will not install them

User · Answer

I ran into a problem in the docker node current-slim  running npm 7 0 9  where npm install appeared to ignore --production  --only prod and --only production  I found two work-arounds   use ci instead  RUN npm ci --only production  which requires an up-to-date package-lock json before npm install  brutally edit the package json with   RUN node -e  const fs   require  quot fs quot    const pkg   JSON parse fs readFileSync  quot   package json quot    quot utf-8 quot     delete pkg devDependencies  fs writeFileSync  quot   package json quot   JSON stringify pkg    quot utf-8 quot     This won t edit your working package json  just the one copied to the docker container  Of course  this shouldn t be necessary  but if it is  as it was for me   there s your hack

User · Answer

When using  npm install  the modules are loaded and available throughout your application regardless of if they are  devDependencies  or  dependencies   Sum of this idea  everything which your package json defines as a dependency  any type  gets installed to node modules   The purpose for the difference between dependencies devDependencies optionalDependencies is what consumers of your code can do w  npm to install these resources   Per the documentation  https   npmjs org doc json html        If someone is planning on downloading and using your module in their   program  then they probably don t want or need to download and build   the external test or documentation framework that you use       In this case  it s best to list these additional items in a   devDependencies hash       These things will be installed whenever the --dev configuration flag   is set  This flag is set automatically when doing npm link or when   doing npm install from the root of a package  and can be managed like   any other npm configuration param  See config 1  for more on the   topic    However  to resolve this question  if you want to ONLY install the  dependencies  using npm  the following command is   npm install --production   This can be confirmed by looking at the Git commit which added this filter  along with some other filters  listed below  to provide this functionality    Alternative filters which can be used by npm   --save            gt  updates dependencies entries in the    json    file --force           gt  force fetching remote entries if they exist on disk  --force-latest    gt  force latest version on conflict --production      gt  do NOT install project devDependencies --no-color        gt  do not print colors    dmarr try using npm install --production

User · Answer

It s worth mentioning that you can use the NODE ENV environment variable to achieve the same result  Particularly useful if you re containerizing your Node application  e g  Docker    NODE ENV production npm install   The above code will install all your dependencies but the dev ones  i e  devDependencies    if you need to use environment variables in your Dockerfile more information can be found here   Environment variables are easy to overwrite whenever needed  e g  if you want to run your test suite say on Travis CI   If that were the case you could do something like this   docker run -v   pwd   usr src app --rm -it -e NODE ENV production node 8 npm install   NPM Documentation here     production         Default  false   Type  Boolean   Set to true to run in  production  mode          devDependencies are not installed at the topmost level when running local npm install without any arguments    Set the NODE ENV  production  for lifecycle scripts          Happy containerization

User · Answer

If you have already installed all your dependencies  and you want to avoid having to download your production packages from NPM again  you can simply type   npm prune --production   This will remove your dev dependencies from your node modules folder  which is helpful if you re trying to automate a two step process like   Webpack my project  using dev dependencies Build a Docker image using only production modules   Running npm prune in between will save you from having to reinstall everything

User · Answer

I suggest to use npm ci  If you want to install only production-needed packages  as you wrote - without devDependencies  then   npm ci --only production   or  NODE ENV production npm ci   If you prefer oldschool npm install then   npm install --production   or  NODE ENV production npm install   Here is good answer why you should use npm ci

User · Answer

If you read this POST in 2016  please achieve what you want by using  --only  prod uction  dev elopment      argument will cause either only devDependencies or only non-devDependencies to be installed regardless of the NODE ENV   from  https   docs npmjs com cli install

User · Answer

Use npm install packageName --save this will add package in dependencies  if you use npm install packageName --save-dev then it devDependencies   npm install packageName --save-dev should be used for adding packages for development purpose  Like adding TDD packages  Chai  mocha  etc   Which are used in development and not in production

User · Answer

I have found that  when trying to install dev dependencies for a package that contains a node addon  you cannot avoid building the addon when running npm install --dev even if you just want to install the devDependencies  So  I had to go around npm s back   node -e  console log  Object keys  require     package json    devDependencies           sed  -e  s            -e  s             xargs npm install   Or  better  and more succinctly  yet   node -e  Object keys  require     package json    devDependencies    map  function  item    console log  item           xargs npm install

User · Answer

The npm install command will install the devDependencies along other dependencies when run inside a package directory  in a development environment  the default    Use npm install --only prod  or --only production  to install only dependencies  and not devDependencies regardless of the value of the NODE ENV environment variable   Source  npm docs  Note  Before v3 3 0 of npm  2015-08-13   the option was called --production  i e  npm install --production

User · Answer

I run into that problem too  npm install is somewhat confusing and web posts keep bringing in the -d --dev flags as if there is an explicit  development  install mode    npm install will install both  dependencies  and  devDependencies  npm install --production will only install  dependencies  npm install --dev will only install  devDependencies

User · Answer

npm install --production --no-optional It installs only deps from dependencies and will ignore optionalDependencies and devDependencies

User · Answer

npm will install dev dependencies when installing from inside a package  if there is a package json in the current directory    If it is from another location  npm registry  git repo  different location on the filesystem  it only installs the dependencies

User · Answer

Now there is a problem  if you have package-lock json with npm 5   You have to remove it before use of npm install --production

User · Answer

npm install --production is the right way of installing node modules which are required for production  Check the documentation for more details

[node.js] How do you prevent install of "devDependencies" NPM modules for Node.js (package.json)?

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