Local dependency in package.json

I want to do something like this, so npm install also installs the package.json of ../somelocallib or more importantly its dependencies.

"dependencies": {
    "express": "*",
    "../somelocallib": "*"
}

Solution 1:

npm >= 2.0.0

This feature was implemented in the version 2.0.0 of npm. Example:

{
  "name": "baz",
  "dependencies": {
    "bar": "file:../foo/bar"
  }
}

Any of the following paths are also valid:

../foo/bar
~/foo/bar
./foo/bar
/foo/bar

The local package will be copied to the prefix (./node-modules).

npm < 2.0.0

Put somelocallib as dependency in your package.json as normal:

"dependencies": {
  "somelocallib": "0.0.x"
}

Then run npm link ../somelocallib and npm will install the version you're working on as a symlink.

[email protected] /private/tmp/app
└── [email protected] -> /private/tmp/somelocallib

Reference: link(1)

Solution 2:

It is now possible to specify local Node module installation paths in your package.json directly. From the docs:

Local Paths

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 npm install -S or npm install --save, using any of these forms:

../foo/bar
~/foo/bar
./foo/bar
/foo/bar

in which case they will be normalized to a relative path and added to your package.json. For example:

{
  "name": "baz",
  "dependencies": {
    "bar": "file:../foo/bar"
  }
}

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.

Solution 3:

This works for me.

Place the following in your package.json file

"scripts": {
    "preinstall": "npm install ../my-own-module/"
}

Solution 4:

If you want to further automate this, because you are checking your module into version control, and don't want to rely upon devs remembering to npm link, you can add this to your package.json "scripts" section:

"scripts": {
    "postinstall": "npm link ../somelocallib",
    "postupdate": "npm link ../somelocallib"
  }

This feels beyond hacky, but it seems to "work". Got the tip from this npm issue: https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1558#issuecomment-12444454

Solution 5:

This is how you will add local dependencies:

npm install file:src/assets/js/FILE_NAME

Add it to package.json from NPM:

npm install --save file:src/assets/js/FILE_NAME

Directly add to package.json like this:

....
  "angular2-autosize": "1.0.1",
  "angular2-text-mask": "8.0.2", 
  "animate.css": "3.5.2",
  "LIBRARY_NAME": "file:src/assets/js/FILE_NAME"
....