npm install doesn't create node_modules directory

npm init

It is all you need. It will create the package.json file on the fly for you.

NPM has created a node_modules directory at '/home/jasonshark/' path.

From your question it looks like you wanted node_modules to be created in the current directory.

For that,

1. Create project directory: mkdir <project-name>
2. Switch to: cd <project-name>
3. Do: npm init This will create package.json file at current path

4. Open package.json & fill it something like below

   {
       "name": "project-name",
       "version": "project-version",
       "dependencies": {
           "mongodb": "*"
       }
   }
   

5. Now do : npm install OR npm update

Now it will create node_modules directory under folder 'project-name' you created.

If you have a package-lock.json file, you may have to delete that file then run npm i. That worked for me

See @Cesco's answer: npm init is really all you need

I was having the same issue - running npm install somePackage was not generating a node_modules dir.

I created a package.json file at the root, which contained a simple JSON obj:

{
    "name": "please-work"
}

On the next npm install the node_modules directory appeared.