How to use npm with node.exe?

Question

I have downloaded Windows Binary (.exe) of nodejs from the main page.

How can I install and use npm (Node package manager)?

Answer 1

The current windows installer from nodejs.org as of v0.6.11 (2012-02-20) will install NPM along with NodeJS.

NOTES:

• At this point, the 64-bit version is your best bet
• The install path for 32-bit node is "Program Files (x86)" in 64-bit windows.
• You may also need to add quotes to the path statement in environment variables, this only seems to be in some cases that I've seen.
• In Windows, the global install path is actually in your user's profile directory
  • %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm
  • %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache
  • WARNING: If you're doing timed events or other automation as a different user, make sure you run npm install as that user. Some modules/utilities should be installed globally.
  • INSTALLER BUGS: You may have to create these directories or add the ...\npm directory to your users path yourself.

---

To change the "global" location for all users to a more appropriate shared global location %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\(npm|npm-cache) (do this as an administrator):

• create an [NODE_INSTALL_PATH]\etc\ directory
  • this is needed before you try npm config --global ... actions
• create the global (admin) location(s) for npm modules
  • C:\ProgramData\npm-cache - npm modules will go here
  • C:\ProgramData\npm - binary scripts for globally installed modules will go here
  • C:\ProgramData\npm\node_modules - globally installed modules will go here
  • set the permissions appropriately
    • administrators: modify
    • authenticated users: read/execute
• Set global configuration settings (Administrator Command Prompt)
  • npm config --global set prefix "C:\ProgramData\npm"
  • npm config --global set cache "C:\ProgramData\npm-cache"
• Add C:\ProgramData\npm to your System's Path environment variable

---

If you want to change your user's "global" location to %LOCALAPPDATA%\(npm|npm-cache) path instead:

• Create the necessary directories
  • C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\npm-cache - npm modules will go here
  • C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\npm - binary scripts for installed modules will go here
  • C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\npm\node_modules - globally installed modules will go here
• Configure npm
  • npm config set prefix "C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\npm"
  • npm config set cache "C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\npm-cache"
• Add the new npm path to your environment's PATH.
  • setx PATH "%PATH%;C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\npm"

---

For beginners, some of the npm modules I've made the most use of are as follows.

• axios - for more complex http posts/gets
• isomorphic-fetch - for http(s) post/get requests
• node-mailer - smtp client
• mssql - interface and driver library for querying MS SQL Server (wraps tedious)

More advanced JS options...

• async/await - async functions, supported via babel

For testing, I reach for the following tools...

• mocha - testing framework
• chai - assertion library, I like chai.expect
• sinon - spies and stubs and shims
• sinon-chai - extend chai with sinon's assertion tools
• babel-istanbul - coverage reports
• jest - parallel testing, assertions, mocking, coverage reports in one tool
• babel-plugin-rewire - slightly easier for some mocking conditions vs. jest

Web tooling.

• webpack - module bundler, package node-style modules for browser usage
• babel - convert modern JS (ES2015+) syntax for your deployment environment.

If you build it...

• shelljs - shell utilities for node scripts,. I used to use gulp/grunt, but these days will have a scripts directory that's referenced in package.json scripts via npm. You can use gulp tools inside plain scripts.

Answer 2

When Node.js is not installed using the msi installer, npm needs to be setup manually.

setting up npm

First, let's say we have the node.exe file located in the folder c:\nodejs. Now to setup npm-

1. Download the latest npm release from GitHub (https://github.com/npm/npm/releases)
2. Create folders c:\nodejs\node_modules and c:\nodejs\node_modules\npm
3. Unzip the downloaded zip file in c:\nodejs\node_modules\npm folder
4. Copy npm and npm.cmd files from c:\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin to c:\nodejs folder

In order to test npm, open cmd.exe change working directory to c:\nodejs and type npm --version. You will see the version of npm if it is setup correctly.

Once setup is done, it can be used to install/uninstall packages locally or globally. For more information on using npm visit https://docs.npmjs.com/.

As the final step you can add node's folder path c:\nodejs to the path environment variable so that you don't have to specify full path when running node.exe and npm at command prompt.