node/deps/npm/man/man5/npm-json.5

.TH "PACKAGE\.JSON" "5" "March 2015" "" ""
.SH "NAME"
\fBpackage.json\fR \- Specifics of npm's package\.json handling
.SH DESCRIPTION
.P
This document is all you need to know about what's required in your package\.json
file\.  It must be actual JSON, not just a JavaScript object literal\.
.P
A lot of the behavior described in this document is affected by the config
settings described in npm help 7 \fBnpm\-config\fR\|\.
.SH name
.P
The \fImost\fR important things in your package\.json are the name and version fields\.
Those are actually required, and your package won't install without
them\.  The name and version together form an identifier that is assumed
to be completely unique\.  Changes to the package should come along with
changes to the version\.
.P
The name is what your thing is called\.  Some tips:
.RS 0
.IP \(bu 2
Don't put "js" or "node" in the name\.  It's assumed that it's js, since you're
writing a package\.json file, and you can specify the engine using the "engines"
field\.  (See below\.)
.IP \(bu 2
The name ends up being part of a URL, an argument on the command line, and a
folder name\. Any name with non\-url\-safe characters will be rejected\.
Also, it can't start with a dot or an underscore\.
.IP \(bu 2
The name will probably be passed as an argument to require(), so it should
be something short, but also reasonably descriptive\.
.IP \(bu 2
You may want to check the npm registry to see if there's something by that name
already, before you get too attached to it\. https://www\.npmjs\.com/

.RE
.P
A name can be optionally prefixed by a scope, e\.g\. \fB@myorg/mypackage\fR\|\. See
npm help 7 \fBnpm\-scope\fR for more detail\.
.SH version
.P
The \fImost\fR important things in your package\.json are the name and version fields\.
Those are actually required, and your package won't install without
them\.  The name and version together form an identifier that is assumed
to be completely unique\.  Changes to the package should come along with
changes to the version\.
.P
Version must be parseable by
node\-semver \fIhttps://github\.com/isaacs/node\-semver\fR, which is bundled
with npm as a dependency\.  (\fBnpm install semver\fR to use it yourself\.)
.P
More on version numbers and ranges at npm help 7 semver\.
.SH description
.P
Put a description in it\.  It's a string\.  This helps people discover your
package, as it's listed in \fBnpm search\fR\|\.
.SH keywords
.P
Put keywords in it\.  It's an array of strings\.  This helps people
discover your package as it's listed in \fBnpm search\fR\|\.
.SH homepage
.P
The url to the project homepage\.
.P
\fBNOTE\fR: This is \fInot\fR the same as "url"\.  If you put a "url" field,
then the registry will think it's a redirection to your package that has
been published somewhere else, and spit at you\.
.P
Literally\.  Spit\.  I'm so not kidding\.
.SH bugs
.P
The url to your project's issue tracker and / or the email address to which
issues should be reported\. These are helpful for people who encounter issues
with your package\.
.P
It should look like this:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "url" : "https://github\.com/owner/project/issues"
, "email" : "project@hostname\.com"
}
.fi
.RE
.P
You can specify either one or both values\. If you want to provide only a url,
you can specify the value for "bugs" as a simple string instead of an object\.
.P
If a url is provided, it will be used by the \fBnpm bugs\fR command\.
.SH license
.P
You should specify a license for your package so that people know how they are
permitted to use it, and any restrictions you're placing on it\.
.P
The simplest way, assuming you're using a common license such as BSD\-3\-Clause
or MIT, is to just specify the standard SPDX ID of the license you're using,
like this:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "license" : "BSD\-3\-Clause" }
.fi
.RE
.P
You can check the full list of SPDX license IDs \fIhttps://spdx\.org/licenses/\fR\|\.
Ideally you should pick one that is
OSI \fIhttp://opensource\.org/licenses/alphabetical\fR approved\.
.P
It's also a good idea to include a LICENSE file at the top level in
your package\.
.SH people fields: author, contributors
.P
The "author" is one person\.  "contributors" is an array of people\.  A "person"
is an object with a "name" field and optionally "url" and "email", like this:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "name" : "Barney Rubble"
, "email" : "b@rubble\.com"
, "url" : "http://barnyrubble\.tumblr\.com/"
}
.fi
.RE
.P
Or you can shorten that all into a single string, and npm will parse it for you:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
"Barney Rubble <b@rubble\.com> (http://barnyrubble\.tumblr\.com/)
.fi
.RE
.P
Both email and url are optional either way\.
.P
npm also sets a top\-level "maintainers" field with your npm user info\.
.SH files
.P
The "files" field is an array of files to include in your project\.  If
you name a folder in the array, then it will also include the files
inside that folder\. (Unless they would be ignored by another rule\.)
.P
You can also provide a "\.npmignore" file in the root of your package,
which will keep files from being included, even if they would be picked
up by the files array\.  The "\.npmignore" file works just like a
"\.gitignore"\.
.SH main
.P
The main field is a module ID that is the primary entry point to your program\.
That is, if your package is named \fBfoo\fR, and a user installs it, and then does
\fBrequire("foo")\fR, then your main module's exports object will be returned\.
.P
This should be a module ID relative to the root of your package folder\.
.P
For most modules, it makes the most sense to have a main script and often not
much else\.
.SH bin
.P
A lot of packages have one or more executable files that they'd like to
install into the PATH\. npm makes this pretty easy (in fact, it uses this
feature to install the "npm" executable\.)
.P
To use this, supply a \fBbin\fR field in your package\.json which is a map of
command name to local file name\. On install, npm will symlink that file into
\fBprefix/bin\fR for global installs, or \fB\|\./node_modules/\.bin/\fR for local
installs\.
.P
For example, myapp could have this:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "bin" : { "myapp" : "\./cli\.js" } }
.fi
.RE
.P
So, when you install myapp, it'll create a symlink from the \fBcli\.js\fR script to
\fB/usr/local/bin/myapp\fR\|\.
.P
If you have a single executable, and its name should be the name
of the package, then you can just supply it as a string\.  For example:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "name": "my\-program"
, "version": "1\.2\.5"
, "bin": "\./path/to/program" }
.fi
.RE
.P
would be the same as this:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "name": "my\-program"
, "version": "1\.2\.5"
, "bin" : { "my\-program" : "\./path/to/program" } }
.fi
.RE
.SH man
.P
Specify either a single file or an array of filenames to put in place for the
\fBman\fR program to find\.
.P
If only a single file is provided, then it's installed such that it is the
result from \fBman <pkgname>\fR, regardless of its actual filename\.  For example:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "name" : "foo"
, "version" : "1\.2\.3"
, "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos"
, "main" : "foo\.js"
, "man" : "\./man/doc\.1"
}
.fi
.RE
.P
would link the \fB\|\./man/doc\.1\fR file in such that it is the target for \fBman foo\fR
.P
If the filename doesn't start with the package name, then it's prefixed\.
So, this:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "name" : "foo"
, "version" : "1\.2\.3"
, "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos"
, "main" : "foo\.js"
, "man" : [ "\./man/foo\.1", "\./man/bar\.1" ]
}
.fi
.RE
.P
will create files to do \fBman foo\fR and \fBman foo\-bar\fR\|\.
.P
Man files must end with a number, and optionally a \fB\|\.gz\fR suffix if they are
compressed\.  The number dictates which man section the file is installed into\.
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "name" : "foo"
, "version" : "1\.2\.3"
, "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos"
, "main" : "foo\.js"
, "man" : [ "\./man/foo\.1", "\./man/foo\.2" ]
}
.fi
.RE
.P
will create entries for \fBman foo\fR and \fBman 2 foo\fR
.SH directories
.P
The CommonJS Packages \fIhttp://wiki\.commonjs\.org/wiki/Packages/1\.0\fR spec details a
few ways that you can indicate the structure of your package using a \fBdirectories\fR
object\. If you look at npm's package\.json \fIhttps://registry\.npmjs\.org/npm/latest\fR,
you'll see that it has directories for doc, lib, and man\.
.P
In the future, this information may be used in other creative ways\.
.SS directories\.lib
.P
Tell people where the bulk of your library is\.  Nothing special is done
with the lib folder in any way, but it's useful meta info\.
.SS directories\.bin
.P
If you specify a \fBbin\fR directory, then all the files in that folder will
be added as children of the \fBbin\fR path\.
.P
If you have a \fBbin\fR path already, then this has no effect\.
.SS directories\.man
.P
A folder that is full of man pages\.  Sugar to generate a "man" array by
walking the folder\.
.SS directories\.doc
.P
Put markdown files in here\.  Eventually, these will be displayed nicely,
maybe, someday\.
.SS directories\.example
.P
Put example scripts in here\.  Someday, it might be exposed in some clever way\.
.SH repository
.P
Specify the place where your code lives\. This is helpful for people who
want to contribute\.  If the git repo is on GitHub, then the \fBnpm docs\fR
command will be able to find you\.
.P
Do it like this:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
"repository" :
  { "type" : "git"
  , "url" : "https://github\.com/npm/npm\.git"
  }

"repository" :
  { "type" : "svn"
  , "url" : "https://v8\.googlecode\.com/svn/trunk/"
  }
.fi
.RE
.P
The URL should be a publicly available (perhaps read\-only) url that can be handed
directly to a VCS program without any modification\.  It should not be a url to an
html project page that you put in your browser\.  It's for computers\.
.P
For GitHub repositories you can use the same shortcut syntax you use for \fBnpm
install\fR:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
"repository": "npm/npm"
.fi
.RE
.SH scripts
.P
The "scripts" property is a dictionary containing script commands that are run
at various times in the lifecycle of your package\.  The key is the lifecycle
event, and the value is the command to run at that point\.
.P
See npm help 7 \fBnpm\-scripts\fR to find out more about writing package scripts\.
.SH config
.P
A "config" object can be used to set configuration parameters used in package
scripts that persist across upgrades\.  For instance, if a package had the
following:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "name" : "foo"
, "config" : { "port" : "8080" } }
.fi
.RE
.P
and then had a "start" command that then referenced the
\fBnpm_package_config_port\fR environment variable, then the user could
override that by doing \fBnpm config set foo:port 8001\fR\|\.
.P
See npm help 7 \fBnpm\-config\fR and npm help 7 \fBnpm\-scripts\fR for more on package
configs\.
.SH dependencies
.P
Dependencies are specified in a simple object that maps a package name to a
version range\. The version range is a string which has one or more
space\-separated descriptors\.  Dependencies can also be identified with a
tarball or git URL\.
.P
\fBPlease do not put test harnesses or transpilers in your
\fBdependencies\fR object\.\fR  See \fBdevDependencies\fR, below\.
.P
See npm help 7 semver for more details about specifying version ranges\.
.RS 0
.IP \(bu 2
\fBversion\fR Must match \fBversion\fR exactly
.IP \(bu 2
\fB>version\fR Must be greater than \fBversion\fR
.IP \(bu 2
\fB>=version\fR etc
.IP \(bu 2
\fB<version\fR
.IP \(bu 2
\fB<=version\fR
.IP \(bu 2
\fB~version\fR "Approximately equivalent to version"  See npm help 7 semver
.IP \(bu 2
\fB^version\fR "Compatible with version"  See npm help 7 semver
.IP \(bu 2
\fB1\.2\.x\fR 1\.2\.0, 1\.2\.1, etc\., but not 1\.3\.0
.IP \(bu 2
\fBhttp://\.\.\.\fR See 'URLs as Dependencies' below
.IP \(bu 2
\fB*\fR Matches any version
.IP \(bu 2
\fB""\fR (just an empty string) Same as \fB*\fR
.IP \(bu 2
\fBversion1 \- version2\fR Same as \fB>=version1 <=version2\fR\|\.
.IP \(bu 2
\fBrange1 || range2\fR Passes if either range1 or range2 are satisfied\.
.IP \(bu 2
\fBgit\.\.\.\fR See 'Git URLs as Dependencies' below
.IP \(bu 2
\fBuser/repo\fR See 'GitHub URLs' below
.IP \(bu 2
\fBtag\fR A specific version tagged and published as \fBtag\fR  See npm help \fBnpm\-tag\fR
.IP \(bu 2
\fBpath/path/path\fR See Local Paths below

.RE
.P
For example, these are all valid:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "dependencies" :
  { "foo" : "1\.0\.0 \- 2\.9999\.9999"
  , "bar" : ">=1\.0\.2 <2\.1\.2"
  , "baz" : ">1\.0\.2 <=2\.3\.4"
  , "boo" : "2\.0\.1"
  , "qux" : "<1\.0\.0 || >=2\.3\.1 <2\.4\.5 || >=2\.5\.2 <3\.0\.0"
  , "asd" : "http://asdf\.com/asdf\.tar\.gz"
  , "til" : "~1\.2"
  , "elf" : "~1\.2\.3"
  , "two" : "2\.x"
  , "thr" : "3\.3\.x"
  , "lat" : "latest"
  , "dyl" : "file:\.\./dyl"
  }
}
.fi
.RE
.SS URLs as Dependencies
.P
You may specify a tarball URL in place of a version range\.
.P
This tarball will be downloaded and installed locally to your package at
install time\.
.SS Git URLs as Dependencies
.P
Git urls can be of the form:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
git://github\.com/user/project\.git#commit\-ish
git+ssh://user@hostname:project\.git#commit\-ish
git+ssh://user@hostname/project\.git#commit\-ish
git+http://user@hostname/project/blah\.git#commit\-ish
git+https://user@hostname/project/blah\.git#commit\-ish
.fi
.RE
.P
The \fBcommit\-ish\fR can be any tag, sha, or branch which can be supplied as
an argument to \fBgit checkout\fR\|\.  The default is \fBmaster\fR\|\.
.SH GitHub URLs
.P
As of version 1\.1\.65, you can refer to GitHub urls as just "foo":
"user/foo\-project"\.  Just as with git URLs, a \fBcommit\-ish\fR suffix can be
included\.  For example:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{
  "name": "foo",
  "version": "0\.0\.0",
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "visionmedia/express",
    "mocha": "visionmedia/mocha#4727d357ea"
  }
}
.fi
.RE
.SH Local Paths
.P
As of version 2\.0\.0 you can provide a path to a local directory that contains a
package\. Local paths can be saved using \fBnpm install \-\-save\fR, using any of
these forms:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
\|\.\./foo/bar
~/foo/bar
\|\./foo/bar
/foo/bar
.fi
.RE
.P
in which case they will be normalized to a relative path and added to your
\fBpackage\.json\fR\|\. For example:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{
  "name": "baz",
  "dependencies": {
    "bar": "file:\.\./foo/bar"
  }
}
.fi
.RE
.P
This feature is helpful for local offline development and creating
tests that require npm installing where you don't want to hit an
external server, but should not be used when publishing packages
to the public registry\.
.SH devDependencies
.P
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\.
.P
In this case, it's best to map these additional items in a \fBdevDependencies\fR
object\.
.P
These things will be installed when doing \fBnpm link\fR or \fBnpm install\fR
from the root of a package, and can be managed like any other npm
configuration param\.  See npm help 7 \fBnpm\-config\fR for more on the topic\.
.P
For build steps that are not platform\-specific, such as compiling
CoffeeScript or other languages to JavaScript, use the \fBprepublish\fR
script to do this, and make the required package a devDependency\.
.P
For example:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "name": "ethopia\-waza",
  "description": "a delightfully fruity coffee varietal",
  "version": "1\.2\.3",
  "devDependencies": {
    "coffee\-script": "~1\.6\.3"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "prepublish": "coffee \-o lib/ \-c src/waza\.coffee"
  },
  "main": "lib/waza\.js"
}
.fi
.RE
.P
The \fBprepublish\fR script will be run before publishing, so that users
can consume the functionality without requiring them to compile it
themselves\.  In dev mode (ie, locally running \fBnpm install\fR), it'll
run this script as well, so that you can test it easily\.
.SH peerDependencies
.P
In some cases, you want to express the compatibility of your package with an
host tool or library, while not necessarily doing a \fBrequire\fR of this host\.
This is usually referred to as a \fIplugin\fR\|\. Notably, your module may be exposing
a specific interface, expected and specified by the host documentation\.
.P
For example:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{
  "name": "tea\-latte",
  "version": "1\.3\.5",
  "peerDependencies": {
    "tea": "2\.x"
  }
}
.fi
.RE
.P
This ensures your package \fBtea\-latte\fR can be installed \fIalong\fR with the second
major version of the host package \fBtea\fR only\. \fBnpm install tea\-latte\fR could
possibly yield the following dependency graph:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
├── tea\-latte@1\.3\.5
└── tea@2\.2\.0
.fi
.RE
.P
\fBNOTE: npm versions 1 and 2 will automatically install \fBpeerDependencies\fR if
they are not explicitly depended upon higher in the dependency tree\. In the
next major version of npm (npm@3), this will no longer be the case\. You will
receive a warning that the peerDependency is not installed instead\.\fR The
behavior in npms 1 & 2 was frequently confusing and could easily put you into
dependency hell, a situation that npm is designed to avoid as much as possible\.
.P
Trying to install another plugin with a conflicting requirement will cause an
error\. For this reason, make sure your plugin requirement is as broad as
possible, and not to lock it down to specific patch versions\.
.P
Assuming the host complies with semver \fIhttp://semver\.org/\fR, only changes in
the host package's major version will break your plugin\. Thus, if you've worked
with every 1\.x version of the host package, use \fB"^1\.0"\fR or \fB"1\.x"\fR to express
this\. If you depend on features introduced in 1\.5\.2, use \fB">= 1\.5\.2 < 2"\fR\|\.
.SH bundledDependencies
.P
Array of package names that will be bundled when publishing the package\.
.P
If this is spelled \fB"bundleDependencies"\fR, then that is also honorable\.
.SH optionalDependencies
.P
If a dependency can be used, but you would like npm to proceed if it cannot be
found or fails to install, then you may put it in the \fBoptionalDependencies\fR
object\.  This is a map of package name to version or url, just like the
\fBdependencies\fR object\.  The difference is that build failures do not cause
installation to fail\.
.P
It is still your program's responsibility to handle the lack of the
dependency\.  For example, something like this:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
try {
  var foo = require('foo')
  var fooVersion = require('foo/package\.json')\.version
} catch (er) {
  foo = null
}
if ( notGoodFooVersion(fooVersion) ) {
  foo = null
}

// \.\. then later in your program \.\.

if (foo) {
  foo\.doFooThings()
}
.fi
.RE
.P
Entries in \fBoptionalDependencies\fR will override entries of the same name in
\fBdependencies\fR, so it's usually best to only put in one place\.
.SH engines
.P
You can specify the version of node that your stuff works on:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "engines" : { "node" : ">=0\.10\.3 <0\.12" } }
.fi
.RE
.P
And, like with dependencies, if you don't specify the version (or if you
specify "*" as the version), then any version of node will do\.
.P
If you specify an "engines" field, then npm will require that "node" be
somewhere on that list\. If "engines" is omitted, then npm will just assume
that it works on node\.
.P
You can also use the "engines" field to specify which versions of npm
are capable of properly installing your program\.  For example:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
{ "engines" : { "npm" : "~1\.0\.20" } }
.fi
.RE
.P
Note that, unless the user has set the \fBengine\-strict\fR config flag, this
field is advisory only\.
.SH engineStrict
.P
\fBNOTE: This feature is deprecated and will be removed in npm 3\.0\.0\.\fR
.P
If you are sure that your module will \fIdefinitely not\fR run properly on
versions of Node/npm other than those specified in the \fBengines\fR object,
then you can set \fB"engineStrict": true\fR in your package\.json file\.
This will override the user's \fBengine\-strict\fR config setting\.
.P
Please do not do this unless you are really very very sure\.  If your
engines object is something overly restrictive, you can quite easily and
inadvertently lock yourself into obscurity and prevent your users from
updating to new versions of Node\.  Consider this choice carefully\.
.SH os
.P
You can specify which operating systems your
module will run on:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
"os" : [ "darwin", "linux" ]
.fi
.RE
.P
You can also blacklist instead of whitelist operating systems,
just prepend the blacklisted os with a '!':
.P
.RS 2
.nf
"os" : [ "!win32" ]
.fi
.RE
.P
The host operating system is determined by \fBprocess\.platform\fR
.P
It is allowed to both blacklist, and whitelist, although there isn't any
good reason to do this\.
.SH cpu
.P
If your code only runs on certain cpu architectures,
you can specify which ones\.
.P
.RS 2
.nf
"cpu" : [ "x64", "ia32" ]
.fi
.RE
.P
Like the \fBos\fR option, you can also blacklist architectures:
.P
.RS 2
.nf
"cpu" : [ "!arm", "!mips" ]
.fi
.RE
.P
The host architecture is determined by \fBprocess\.arch\fR
.SH preferGlobal
.P
If your package is primarily a command\-line application that should be
installed globally, then set this value to \fBtrue\fR to provide a warning
if it is installed locally\.
.P
It doesn't actually prevent users from installing it locally, but it
does help prevent some confusion if it doesn't work as expected\.
.SH private
.P
If you set \fB"private": true\fR in your package\.json, then npm will refuse
to publish it\.
.P
This is a way to prevent accidental publication of private repositories\.  If
you would like to ensure that a given package is only ever published to a
specific registry (for example, an internal registry), then use the
\fBpublishConfig\fR dictionary described below to override the \fBregistry\fR config
param at publish\-time\.
.SH publishConfig
.P
This is a set of config values that will be used at publish\-time\.  It's
especially handy if you want to set the tag or registry, so that you can
ensure that a given package is not tagged with "latest" or published to
the global public registry by default\.
.P
Any config values can be overridden, but of course only "tag" and
"registry" probably matter for the purposes of publishing\.
.P
See npm help 7 \fBnpm\-config\fR to see the list of config options that can be
overridden\.
.SH DEFAULT VALUES
.P
npm will default some values based on package contents\.
.RS 0
.IP \(bu 2
\fB"scripts": {"start": "node server\.js"}\fR
If there is a \fBserver\.js\fR file in the root of your package, then npm
will default the \fBstart\fR command to \fBnode server\.js\fR\|\.
.IP \(bu 2
\fB"scripts":{"preinstall": "node\-gyp rebuild"}\fR
If there is a \fBbinding\.gyp\fR file in the root of your package, npm will
default the \fBpreinstall\fR command to compile using node\-gyp\.
.IP \(bu 2
\fB"contributors": [\.\.\.]\fR
If there is an \fBAUTHORS\fR file in the root of your package, npm will
treat each line as a \fBName <email> (url)\fR format, where email and url
are optional\.  Lines which start with a \fB#\fR or are blank, will be
ignored\.

.RE
.SH SEE ALSO
.RS 0
.IP \(bu 2
npm help 7 semver
.IP \(bu 2
npm help init
.IP \(bu 2
npm help version
.IP \(bu 2
npm help config
.IP \(bu 2
npm help 7 config
.IP \(bu 2
npm help help
.IP \(bu 2
npm help 7 faq
.IP \(bu 2
npm help install
.IP \(bu 2
npm help publish
.IP \(bu 2
npm help rm

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