123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151152153154155156157158159160161162163164165166167168169170171172173174175176177178179180181182183184185186187188189190191192193194195196197198199200201202203204205206207208209210211212213214215216217218219220221222223224225226227228229230231232233234235236237238239240241242243244245246247248249250251252253254255256257258259260261262263264265266267268269270271272273274275276277278279280281282283284285286287288289290291292293294295296297298299300301302303304305306307308309310311312313314315316317318319320321322323 |
- <html><head>
- <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>bundledDependencies</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>
|