How do I force npm to reinstall a single package, even if the version number is the same?

Question

In my Node.js project, I have a dependency on another local project. Oftentimes, I need to make a small change to the dependency and see how it affects my main project. In order to do this, I have to reinstall my dependency using npm.

I can use npm update to try to update my dependency, but this seems like it will only work if the version number has changed on the dependency. I don't want to have to change the version number on my dependency every time I change a line of code or two to make an experimental change in development.

I can rm -rf node_modules/; npm install to ensure that I get the latest versions of all of my dependencies. Downloading all of my non-local dependencies takes several minutes, breaking up my train of thought.

Is there a way to force npm to reinstall a single dependency, even if that dependency's version number hasn't changed?

Answer 1

When you run npm install, it will install any missing dependencies, so you can combine it with an uninstall like this:

npm uninstall some_module; npm install

With npm 5, uninstalled modules are removed from the package.json, so you should use:

npm uninstall some_module; npm install some_module

Answer 2

On npm v 6.14:

npm install module_name --force --no-save

You get a message stating:

npm WARN using --force I sure hope you know what you are doing.

And then it proceeds to uninstall and reinstall the package.

Note: if you don't specify the --no-save option, npm updates the package version on package.json to the highest version that is compatible with the existing SemVer rule.
If you do not want npm to update the package's version on package.json, keep the --no-save option.