How to create source tarball release of package with npm without publishing it

Question

I want to make source tarball release of npm package without publishing it, something similar as in python:

python setup.py sdist

I want to also specify which files to include, something similar like MANIFEST.in file in python.

I know i can publish package to npm and that creates tarball, but this is my private project and i don't want to have it published.

Answer 1

If no arguments are supplied, then npm packs the current package folder.

there is npm pack which packs the current directory, but there is no command to specify files to include, instead of doing that specify .npmignore to ignore files that you don't want inside the package.

also set private:true to package.json to prevent npm from publishing the package.