node package manager
var npm = require("npm")
npm.load([configObject,] function (er, npm) {
// use the npm object, now that it's loaded.
npm.config.set(key, val)
val = npm.config.get(key)
console.log("prefix = %s", npm.prefix)
npm.commands.install(["package"], cb)
})
1.3.5
This is the API documentation for npm.
To find documentation of the command line
client, see npm(1)
.
Prior to using npm's commands, npm.load()
must be called.
If you provide configObject
as an object hash of top-level
configs, they override the values stored in the various config
locations. In the npm command line client, this set of configs
is parsed from the command line options. Additional configuration
params are loaded from two configuration files. See npm-config(1)
,
npm-config(7)
, and npmrc(5)
for more information.
After that, each of the functions are accessible in the
commands object: npm.commands.<cmd>
. See npm-index(7)
for a list of
all possible commands.
All commands on the command object take an array of positional argument strings. The last argument to any function is a callback. Some commands take other optional arguments.
Configs cannot currently be set on a per function basis, as each call to npm.config.set will change the value for all npm commands in that process.
To find API documentation for a specific command, run the npm apihelp
command.
npm.load(configs, cb)
Load the configuration params, and call the cb
function once the
globalconfig and userconfig files have been loaded as well, or on
nextTick if they've already been loaded.
npm.config
An object for accessing npm configuration parameters.
npm.config.get(key)
npm.config.set(key, val)
npm.config.del(key)
npm.dir
or npm.root
The node_modules
directory where npm will operate.
npm.prefix
The prefix where npm is operating. (Most often the current working directory.)
npm.cache
The place where npm keeps JSON and tarballs it fetches from the registry (or uploads to the registry).
npm.tmp
npm's temporary working directory.
npm.deref
Get the "real" name for a command that has either an alias or abbreviation.
For each of the methods in the npm.commands
hash, a method is added to
the npm object, which takes a set of positional string arguments rather
than an array and a callback.
If the last argument is a callback, then it will use the supplied callback. However, if no callback is provided, then it will print out the error or results.
For example, this would work in a node repl:
> npm = require("npm")
> npm.load() // wait a sec...
> npm.install("dnode", "express")
Note that that won't work in a node program, since the install
method will get called before the configuration load is completed.
In order to support npm ins foo
instead of npm install foo
, the
npm.commands
object has a set of abbreviations as well as the full
method names. Use the npm.deref
method to find the real name.
For example:
var cmd = npm.deref("unp") // cmd === "unpublish"