EVOLUTION-MANAGER
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<!DOCTYPE html><html><head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>folders</title> <style> body { background-color: #ffffff; color: #24292e; margin: 0; line-height: 1.5; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji"; } #rainbar { height: 10px; background-image: linear-gradient(139deg, #fb8817, #ff4b01, #c12127, #e02aff); } a { text-decoration: none; color: #0366d6; } a:hover { text-decoration: underline; } pre { margin: 1em 0px; padding: 1em; border: solid 1px #e1e4e8; border-radius: 6px; display: block; overflow: auto; white-space: pre; background-color: #f6f8fa; color: #393a34; } code { font-family: SFMono-Regular, Consolas, "Liberation Mono", Menlo, Courier, monospace; font-size: 85%; padding: 0.2em 0.4em; background-color: #f6f8fa; color: #393a34; } pre > code { padding: 0; background-color: inherit; color: inherit; } h1, h2, h3 { font-weight: 600; } #logobar { background-color: #333333; margin: 0 auto; padding: 1em 4em; } #logobar .logo { float: left; } #logobar .title { font-weight: 600; color: #dddddd; float: left; margin: 5px 0 0 1em; } #logobar:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } #content { margin: 0 auto; padding: 0 4em; } #table_of_contents > h2 { font-size: 1.17em; } #table_of_contents ul:first-child { border: solid 1px #e1e4e8; border-radius: 6px; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f8fa; color: #393a34; } #table_of_contents ul { list-style-type: none; padding-left: 1.5em; } #table_of_contents li { font-size: 0.9em; } #table_of_contents li a { color: #000000; } header.title { border-bottom: solid 1px #e1e4e8; } header.title > h1 { margin-bottom: 0.25em; } header.title > .description { display: block; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 1; } footer#edit { border-top: solid 1px #e1e4e8; margin: 3em 0 4em 0; padding-top: 2em; } </style> </head> <body> <div id="banner"> <div id="rainbar"></div> <div id="logobar"> <svg class="logo" role="img" height="32" width="32" viewBox="0 0 700 700"> <polygon fill="#cb0000" points="0,700 700,700 700,0 0,0"></polygon> <polygon fill="#ffffff" points="150,550 350,550 350,250 450,250 450,550 550,550 550,150 150,150"></polygon> </svg> <div class="title"> npm command-line interface </div> </div> </div> <section id="content"> <header class="title"> <h1 id="folders">folders</h1> <span class="description">Folder Structures Used by npm</span> </header> <section id="table_of_contents"> <h2 id="table-of-contents">Table of contents</h2> <div id="_table_of_contents"><ul><li><a href="#description">Description</a></li><ul><li><a href="#tldr">tl;dr</a></li><li><a href="#prefix-configuration">prefix Configuration</a></li><li><a href="#node-modules">Node Modules</a></li><li><a href="#executables">Executables</a></li><li><a href="#man-pages">Man Pages</a></li><li><a href="#cache">Cache</a></li><li><a href="#temp-files">Temp Files</a></li></ul><li><a href="#more-information">More Information</a></li><ul><li><a href="#global-installation">Global Installation</a></li><li><a href="#cycles-conflicts-and-folder-parsimony">Cycles, Conflicts, and Folder Parsimony</a></li><li><a href="#example">Example</a></li><li><a href="#publishing">Publishing</a></li></ul><li><a href="#see-also">See also</a></li></ul></div> </section> <div id="_content"><h3 id="description">Description</h3> <p>npm puts various things on your computer. That's its job.</p> <p>This document will tell you what it puts where.</p> <h4 id="tldr">tl;dr</h4> <ul> <li>Local install (default): puts stuff in <code>./node_modules</code> of the current package root.</li> <li>Global install (with <code>-g</code>): puts stuff in /usr/local or wherever node is installed.</li> <li>Install it <strong>locally</strong> if you're going to <code>require()</code> it.</li> <li>Install it <strong>globally</strong> if you're going to run it on the command line.</li> <li>If you need both, then install it in both places, or use <code>npm link</code>.</li> </ul> <h4 id="prefix-configuration">prefix Configuration</h4> <p>The <code>prefix</code> config defaults to the location where node is installed. On most systems, this is <code>/usr/local</code>. On Windows, it's <code>%AppData%\npm</code>. On Unix systems, it's one level up, since node is typically installed at <code>{prefix}/bin/node</code> rather than <code>{prefix}/node.exe</code>.</p> <p>When the <code>global</code> flag is set, npm installs things into this prefix. When it is not set, it uses the root of the current package, or the current working directory if not in a package already.</p> <h4 id="node-modules">Node Modules</h4> <p>Packages are dropped into the <code>node_modules</code> folder under the <code>prefix</code>. When installing locally, this means that you can <code>require("packagename")</code> to load its main module, or <code>require("packagename/lib/path/to/sub/module")</code> to load other modules.</p> <p>Global installs on Unix systems go to <code>{prefix}/lib/node_modules</code>. Global installs on Windows go to <code>{prefix}/node_modules</code> (that is, no <code>lib</code> folder.)</p> <p>Scoped packages are installed the same way, except they are grouped together in a sub-folder of the relevant <code>node_modules</code> folder with the name of that scope prefix by the @ symbol, e.g. <code>npm install @myorg/package</code> would place the package in <code>{prefix}/node_modules/@myorg/package</code>. See <a href="../using-npm/scope.html"><code>scope</code></a> for more details.</p> <p>If you wish to <code>require()</code> a package, then install it locally.</p> <h4 id="executables">Executables</h4> <p>When in global mode, executables are linked into <code>{prefix}/bin</code> on Unix, or directly into <code>{prefix}</code> on Windows. Ensure that path is in your terminal's <code>PATH</code> environment to run them.</p> <p>When in local mode, executables are linked into <code>./node_modules/.bin</code> so that they can be made available to scripts run through npm. (For example, so that a test runner will be in the path when you run <code>npm test</code>.)</p> <h4 id="man-pages">Man Pages</h4> <p>When in global mode, man pages are linked into <code>{prefix}/share/man</code>.</p> <p>When in local mode, man pages are not installed.</p> <p>Man pages are not installed on Windows systems.</p> <h4 id="cache">Cache</h4> <p>See <a href="../commands/npm-cache.html"><code>npm cache</code></a>. Cache files are stored in <code>~/.npm</code> on Posix, or <code>%AppData%/npm-cache</code> on Windows.</p> <p>This is controlled by the <code>cache</code> configuration param.</p> <h4 id="temp-files">Temp Files</h4> <p>Temporary files are stored by default in the folder specified by the <code>tmp</code> config, which defaults to the TMPDIR, TMP, or TEMP environment variables, or <code>/tmp</code> on Unix and <code>c:\windows\temp</code> on Windows.</p> <p>Temp files are given a unique folder under this root for each run of the program, and are deleted upon successful exit.</p> <h3 id="more-information">More Information</h3> <p>When installing locally, npm first tries to find an appropriate <code>prefix</code> folder. This is so that <code>npm install foo@1.2.3</code> will install to the sensible root of your package, even if you happen to have <code>cd</code>ed into some other folder.</p> <p>Starting at the $PWD, npm will walk up the folder tree checking for a folder that contains either a <code>package.json</code> file, or a <code>node_modules</code> folder. If such a thing is found, then that is treated as the effective "current directory" for the purpose of running npm commands. (This behavior is inspired by and similar to git's .git-folder seeking logic when running git commands in a working dir.)</p> <p>If no package root is found, then the current folder is used.</p> <p>When you run <code>npm install foo@1.2.3</code>, then the package is loaded into the cache, and then unpacked into <code>./node_modules/foo</code>. Then, any of foo's dependencies are similarly unpacked into <code>./node_modules/foo/node_modules/...</code>.</p> <p>Any bin files are symlinked to <code>./node_modules/.bin/</code>, so that they may be found by npm scripts when necessary.</p> <h4 id="global-installation">Global Installation</h4> <p>If the <code>global</code> configuration is set to true, then npm will install packages "globally".</p> <p>For global installation, packages are installed roughly the same way, but using the folders described above.</p> <h4 id="cycles-conflicts-and-folder-parsimony">Cycles, Conflicts, and Folder Parsimony</h4> <p>Cycles are handled using the property of node's module system that it walks up the directories looking for <code>node_modules</code> folders. So, at every stage, if a package is already installed in an ancestor <code>node_modules</code> folder, then it is not installed at the current location.</p> <p>Consider the case above, where <code>foo -> bar -> baz</code>. Imagine if, in addition to that, baz depended on bar, so you'd have: <code>foo -> bar -> baz -> bar -> baz ...</code>. However, since the folder structure is: <code>foo/node_modules/bar/node_modules/baz</code>, there's no need to put another copy of bar into <code>.../baz/node_modules</code>, since when it calls require("bar"), it will get the copy that is installed in <code>foo/node_modules/bar</code>.</p> <p>This shortcut is only used if the exact same version would be installed in multiple nested <code>node_modules</code> folders. It is still possible to have <code>a/node_modules/b/node_modules/a</code> if the two "a" packages are different versions. However, without repeating the exact same package multiple times, an infinite regress will always be prevented.</p> <p>Another optimization can be made by installing dependencies at the highest level possible, below the localized "target" folder.</p> <h4 id="example">Example</h4> <p>Consider this dependency graph:</p> <pre lang="bash"><code>foo +-- blerg@1.2.5 +-- bar@1.2.3 | +-- blerg@1.x (latest=1.3.7) | +-- baz@2.x | | `-- quux@3.x | | `-- bar@1.2.3 (cycle) | `-- asdf@* `-- baz@1.2.3 `-- quux@3.x `-- bar </code></pre> <p>In this case, we might expect a folder structure like this:</p> <pre lang="bash"><code>foo +-- node_modules +-- blerg (1.2.5) <---[A] +-- bar (1.2.3) <---[B] | `-- node_modules | +-- baz (2.0.2) <---[C] | | `-- node_modules | | `-- quux (3.2.0) | `-- asdf (2.3.4) `-- baz (1.2.3) <---[D] `-- node_modules `-- quux (3.2.0) <---[E] </code></pre> <p>Since foo depends directly on <code>bar@1.2.3</code> and <code>baz@1.2.3</code>, those are installed in foo's <code>node_modules</code> folder.</p> <p>Even though the latest copy of blerg is 1.3.7, foo has a specific dependency on version 1.2.5. So, that gets installed at [A]. Since the parent installation of blerg satisfies bar's dependency on <code>blerg@1.x</code>, it does not install another copy under [B].</p> <p>Bar [B] also has dependencies on baz and asdf, so those are installed in bar's <code>node_modules</code> folder. Because it depends on <code>baz@2.x</code>, it cannot re-use the <code>baz@1.2.3</code> installed in the parent <code>node_modules</code> folder [D], and must install its own copy [C].</p> <p>Underneath bar, the <code>baz -> quux -> bar</code> dependency creates a cycle. However, because bar is already in quux's ancestry [B], it does not unpack another copy of bar into that folder.</p> <p>Underneath <code>foo -> baz</code> [D], quux's [E] folder tree is empty, because its dependency on bar is satisfied by the parent folder copy installed at [B].</p> <p>For a graphical breakdown of what is installed where, use <code>npm ls</code>.</p> <h4 id="publishing">Publishing</h4> <p>Upon publishing, npm will look in the <code>node_modules</code> folder. If any of the items there are not in the <code>bundleDependencies</code> array, then they will not be included in the package tarball.</p> <p>This allows a package maintainer to install all of their dependencies (and dev dependencies) locally, but only re-publish those items that cannot be found elsewhere. See <a href="../configuring-npm/package-json.html"><code>package.json</code></a> for more information.</p> <h3 id="see-also">See also</h3> <ul> <li><a href="../configuring-npm/package-json.html">package.json</a></li> <li><a href="../commands/npm-install.html">npm install</a></li> <li><a href="../commands/npm-pack.html">npm pack</a></li> <li><a href="../commands/npm-cache.html">npm cache</a></li> <li><a href="../commands/npm-config.html">npm config</a></li> <li><a href="../configuring-npm/npmrc.html">npmrc</a></li> <li><a href="../using-npm/config.html">config</a></li> <li><a href="../commands/npm-publish.html">npm publish</a></li> </ul> </div> <footer id="edit"> <a href="https://github.com/npm/cli/edit/latest/docs/content/configuring-npm/folders.md"> <svg role="img" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16" height="16" fill="currentcolor" style="vertical-align: text-bottom; margin-right: 0.3em;"> <path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M11.013 1.427a1.75 1.75 0 012.474 0l1.086 1.086a1.75 1.75 0 010 2.474l-8.61 8.61c-.21.21-.47.364-.756.445l-3.251.93a.75.75 0 01-.927-.928l.929-3.25a1.75 1.75 0 01.445-.758l8.61-8.61zm1.414 1.06a.25.25 0 00-.354 0L10.811 3.75l1.439 1.44 1.263-1.263a.25.25 0 000-.354l-1.086-1.086zM11.189 6.25L9.75 4.81l-6.286 6.287a.25.25 0 00-.064.108l-.558 1.953 1.953-.558a.249.249 0 00.108-.064l6.286-6.286z"></path> </svg> Edit this page on GitHub </a> </footer> </section> </body></html>