Tag Archives: npm

The npm link way

To work with local NPM packages on can reside to using npm link. You make a package available locally with npm link and later on symlink it into your project using npm link package:

cd ~/projects/node-redis    # go into the package directory
npm link                    # creates global link

cd ~/projects/node-bloggy   # go into some project directory
npm link redis              # link-install the redis package (by its name)

This methods works fine and – above all – allows you to have a package.json that has no record of that link. That way you can check it into Git and push it, while still using the local version.

A downside however is that this way of working change is not explicit: by checking your package.json you can’t really tell whether you’re using a locally linked version or not.

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The relative path way

A more easy quick and dirty way of achieving this is to directly install a package by simply referring to its directory:

cd ~/projects/node-bloggy   # go into some project directory
npm install ../node-redis   # install the redis package by referring to its directory

Apart from symlinking the package into your project, your package.json will have been adjusted like this:

{
  …
  "dependencies": {
    "redis": "file:../node-redis"
  }
}

This change is explicit: a look at your package.json clearly tells you that you’re using a locally installed package.

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So which technique to use when? Personally I go for:

• npm link when adjusting an existing library (most likely a clone/fork to land a bugfix) while testing it in an existing project
• npm install ../path when splitting off a new library from an existing project

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