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| <h1><a href="../files/package.json.html">package.json</a></h1> <p>Specifics of npm's package.json handling</p> |
| <h2 id="description">DESCRIPTION</h2> |
| <p>This document is all you need to know about what's required in your package.json |
| file. It must be actual JSON, not just a JavaScript object literal.</p> |
| <p>A lot of the behavior described in this document is affected by the config |
| settings described in <code><a href="../misc/npm-config.html">npm-config(7)</a></code>.</p> |
| <h2 id="name">name</h2> |
| <p>The <em>most</em> important things in your package.json are the name and version fields. |
| Those are actually required, and your package won't install without |
| them. The name and version together form an identifier that is assumed |
| to be completely unique. Changes to the package should come along with |
| changes to the version.</p> |
| <p>The name is what your thing is called.</p> |
| <p>Some rules:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>The name must be less than or equal to 214 characters. This includes the scope for |
| scoped packages.</li> |
| <li>The name can't start with a dot or an underscore.</li> |
| <li>New packages must not have uppercase letters in the name.</li> |
| <li>The name ends up being part of a URL, an argument on the command line, and a |
| folder name. Therefore, the name can't contain any non-URL-safe characters.</li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>Some tips:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>Don't use the same name as a core Node module.</li> |
| <li>Don't put "js" or "node" in the name. It's assumed that it's js, since you're |
| writing a package.json file, and you can specify the engine using the "engines" |
| field. (See below.)</li> |
| <li>The name will probably be passed as an argument to require(), so it should |
| be something short, but also reasonably descriptive.</li> |
| <li>You may want to check the npm registry to see if there's something by that name |
| already, before you get too attached to it. <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/">https://www.npmjs.com/</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>A name can be optionally prefixed by a scope, e.g. <code>@myorg/mypackage</code>. See |
| <code><a href="../misc/npm-scope.html">npm-scope(7)</a></code> for more detail.</p> |
| <h2 id="version">version</h2> |
| <p>The <em>most</em> important things in your package.json are the name and version fields. |
| Those are actually required, and your package won't install without |
| them. The name and version together form an identifier that is assumed |
| to be completely unique. Changes to the package should come along with |
| changes to the version.</p> |
| <p>Version must be parseable by |
| <a href="https://github.com/isaacs/node-semver">node-semver</a>, which is bundled |
| with npm as a dependency. (<code>npm install semver</code> to use it yourself.)</p> |
| <p>More on version numbers and ranges at <a href="../misc/semver.html">semver(7)</a>.</p> |
| <h2 id="description">description</h2> |
| <p>Put a description in it. It's a string. This helps people discover your |
| package, as it's listed in <code>npm search</code>.</p> |
| <h2 id="keywords">keywords</h2> |
| <p>Put keywords in it. It's an array of strings. This helps people |
| discover your package as it's listed in <code>npm search</code>.</p> |
| <h2 id="homepage">homepage</h2> |
| <p>The url to the project homepage.</p> |
| <p><strong>NOTE</strong>: This is <em>not</em> the same as "url". If you put a "url" field, |
| then the registry will think it's a redirection to your package that has |
| been published somewhere else, and spit at you.</p> |
| <p>Literally. Spit. I'm so not kidding.</p> |
| <h2 id="bugs">bugs</h2> |
| <p>The url to your project's issue tracker and / or the email address to which |
| issues should be reported. These are helpful for people who encounter issues |
| with your package.</p> |
| <p>It should look like this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "url" : "https://github.com/owner/project/issues" |
| , "email" : "project@hostname.com" |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>You can specify either one or both values. If you want to provide only a url, |
| you can specify the value for "bugs" as a simple string instead of an object.</p> |
| <p>If a url is provided, it will be used by the <code>npm bugs</code> command.</p> |
| <h2 id="license">license</h2> |
| <p>You should specify a license for your package so that people know how they are |
| permitted to use it, and any restrictions you're placing on it.</p> |
| <p>If you're using a common license such as BSD-2-Clause or MIT, add a |
| current SPDX license identifier for the license you're using, like this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "license" : "BSD-3-Clause" } |
| </code></pre><p>You can check <a href="https://spdx.org/licenses/">the full list of SPDX license IDs</a>. |
| Ideally you should pick one that is |
| <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical">OSI</a> approved.</p> |
| <p>If your package is licensed under multiple common licenses, use an <a href="https://npmjs.com/package/spdx">SPDX license |
| expression syntax version 2.0 string</a>, like this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "license" : "(ISC OR GPL-3.0)" } |
| </code></pre><p>If you are using a license that hasn't been assigned an SPDX identifier, or if |
| you are using a custom license, use a string value like this one:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "license" : "SEE LICENSE IN <filename>" } |
| </code></pre><p>Then include a file named <code><filename></code> at the top level of the package.</p> |
| <p>Some old packages used license objects or a "licenses" property containing an |
| array of license objects:</p> |
| <pre><code>// Not valid metadata |
| { "license" : |
| { "type" : "ISC" |
| , "url" : "http://opensource.org/licenses/ISC" |
| } |
| } |
| |
| // Not valid metadata |
| { "licenses" : |
| [ |
| { "type": "MIT" |
| , "url": "http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php" |
| } |
| , { "type": "Apache-2.0" |
| , "url": "http://opensource.org/licenses/apache2.0.php" |
| } |
| ] |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>Those styles are now deprecated. Instead, use SPDX expressions, like this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "license": "ISC" } |
| |
| { "license": "(MIT OR Apache-2.0)" } |
| </code></pre><p>Finally, if you do not wish to grant others the right to use a private or |
| unpublished package under any terms:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "license": "UNLICENSED"} |
| </code></pre><p>Consider also setting <code>"private": true</code> to prevent accidental publication.</p> |
| <h2 id="people-fields-author-contributors">people fields: author, contributors</h2> |
| <p>The "author" is one person. "contributors" is an array of people. A "person" |
| is an object with a "name" field and optionally "url" and "email", like this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "name" : "Barney Rubble" |
| , "email" : "b@rubble.com" |
| , "url" : "http://barnyrubble.tumblr.com/" |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>Or you can shorten that all into a single string, and npm will parse it for you:</p> |
| <pre><code>"Barney Rubble <b@rubble.com> (http://barnyrubble.tumblr.com/)" |
| </code></pre><p>Both email and url are optional either way.</p> |
| <p>npm also sets a top-level "maintainers" field with your npm user info.</p> |
| <h2 id="files">files</h2> |
| <p>The "files" field is an array of files to include in your project. If |
| you name a folder in the array, then it will also include the files |
| inside that folder. (Unless they would be ignored by another rule.)</p> |
| <p>You can also provide a ".npmignore" file in the root of your package or |
| in subdirectories, which will keep files from being included, even |
| if they would be picked up by the files array. The <code>.npmignore</code> file |
| works just like a <code>.gitignore</code>.</p> |
| <p>Certain files are always included, regardless of settings:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><code>package.json</code></li> |
| <li><code><a href="../../doc/README.html">README</a></code></li> |
| <li><code>CHANGES</code> / <code>CHANGELOG</code> / <code>HISTORY</code> (any casing and file extension)</li> |
| <li><code>LICENSE</code> / <code>LICENCE</code></li> |
| <li>The file in the "main" field</li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>Conversely, some files are always ignored:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><code>.git</code></li> |
| <li><code>CVS</code></li> |
| <li><code>.svn</code></li> |
| <li><code>.hg</code></li> |
| <li><code>.lock-wscript</code></li> |
| <li><code>.wafpickle-N</code></li> |
| <li><code>.*.swp</code></li> |
| <li><code>.DS_Store</code></li> |
| <li><code>._*</code></li> |
| <li><code>npm-debug.log</code></li> |
| <li><code>.npmrc</code></li> |
| <li><code>node_modules</code></li> |
| </ul> |
| <h2 id="main">main</h2> |
| <p>The main field is a module ID that is the primary entry point to your program. |
| That is, if your package is named <code>foo</code>, and a user installs it, and then does |
| <code>require("foo")</code>, then your main module's exports object will be returned.</p> |
| <p>This should be a module ID relative to the root of your package folder.</p> |
| <p>For most modules, it makes the most sense to have a main script and often not |
| much else.</p> |
| <h2 id="bin">bin</h2> |
| <p>A lot of packages have one or more executable files that they'd like to |
| install into the PATH. npm makes this pretty easy (in fact, it uses this |
| feature to install the "npm" executable.)</p> |
| <p>To use this, supply a <code>bin</code> field in your package.json which is a map of |
| command name to local file name. On install, npm will symlink that file into |
| <code>prefix/bin</code> for global installs, or <code>./node_modules/.bin/</code> for local |
| installs.</p> |
| <p>For example, myapp could have this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "bin" : { "myapp" : "./cli.js" } } |
| </code></pre><p>So, when you install myapp, it'll create a symlink from the <code>cli.js</code> script to |
| <code>/usr/local/bin/myapp</code>.</p> |
| <p>If you have a single executable, and its name should be the name |
| of the package, then you can just supply it as a string. For example:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "name": "my-program" |
| , "version": "1.2.5" |
| , "bin": "./path/to/program" } |
| </code></pre><p>would be the same as this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "name": "my-program" |
| , "version": "1.2.5" |
| , "bin" : { "my-program" : "./path/to/program" } } |
| </code></pre><h2 id="man">man</h2> |
| <p>Specify either a single file or an array of filenames to put in place for the |
| <code>man</code> program to find.</p> |
| <p>If only a single file is provided, then it's installed such that it is the |
| result from <code>man <pkgname></code>, regardless of its actual filename. For example:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "name" : "foo" |
| , "version" : "1.2.3" |
| , "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos" |
| , "main" : "foo.js" |
| , "man" : "./man/doc.1" |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>would link the <code>./man/doc.1</code> file in such that it is the target for <code>man foo</code></p> |
| <p>If the filename doesn't start with the package name, then it's prefixed. |
| So, this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "name" : "foo" |
| , "version" : "1.2.3" |
| , "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos" |
| , "main" : "foo.js" |
| , "man" : [ "./man/foo.1", "./man/bar.1" ] |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>will create files to do <code>man foo</code> and <code>man foo-bar</code>.</p> |
| <p>Man files must end with a number, and optionally a <code>.gz</code> suffix if they are |
| compressed. The number dictates which man section the file is installed into.</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "name" : "foo" |
| , "version" : "1.2.3" |
| , "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos" |
| , "main" : "foo.js" |
| , "man" : [ "./man/foo.1", "./man/foo.2" ] |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>will create entries for <code>man foo</code> and <code>man 2 foo</code></p> |
| <h2 id="directories">directories</h2> |
| <p>The CommonJS <a href="http://wiki.commonjs.org/wiki/Packages/1.0">Packages</a> spec details a |
| few ways that you can indicate the structure of your package using a <code>directories</code> |
| object. If you look at <a href="https://registry.npmjs.org/npm/latest">npm's package.json</a>, |
| you'll see that it has directories for doc, lib, and man.</p> |
| <p>In the future, this information may be used in other creative ways.</p> |
| <h3 id="directories-lib">directories.lib</h3> |
| <p>Tell people where the bulk of your library is. Nothing special is done |
| with the lib folder in any way, but it's useful meta info.</p> |
| <h3 id="directories-bin">directories.bin</h3> |
| <p>If you specify a <code>bin</code> directory in <code>directories.bin</code>, all the files in |
| that folder will be added.</p> |
| <p>Because of the way the <code>bin</code> directive works, specifying both a |
| <code>bin</code> path and setting <code>directories.bin</code> is an error. If you want to |
| specify individual files, use <code>bin</code>, and for all the files in an |
| existing <code>bin</code> directory, use <code>directories.bin</code>.</p> |
| <h3 id="directories-man">directories.man</h3> |
| <p>A folder that is full of man pages. Sugar to generate a "man" array by |
| walking the folder.</p> |
| <h3 id="directories-doc">directories.doc</h3> |
| <p>Put markdown files in here. Eventually, these will be displayed nicely, |
| maybe, someday.</p> |
| <h3 id="directories-example">directories.example</h3> |
| <p>Put example scripts in here. Someday, it might be exposed in some clever way.</p> |
| <h3 id="directories-test">directories.test</h3> |
| <p>Put your tests in here. It is currently not exposed, but it might be in the |
| future.</p> |
| <h2 id="repository">repository</h2> |
| <p>Specify the place where your code lives. This is helpful for people who |
| want to contribute. If the git repo is on GitHub, then the <code>npm docs</code> |
| command will be able to find you.</p> |
| <p>Do it like this:</p> |
| <pre><code>"repository" : |
| { "type" : "git" |
| , "url" : "https://github.com/npm/npm.git" |
| } |
| |
| "repository" : |
| { "type" : "svn" |
| , "url" : "https://v8.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/" |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>The URL should be a publicly available (perhaps read-only) url that can be handed |
| directly to a VCS program without any modification. It should not be a url to an |
| html project page that you put in your browser. It's for computers.</p> |
| <p>For GitHub, GitHub gist, Bitbucket, or GitLab repositories you can use the same |
| shortcut syntax you use for <code>npm install</code>:</p> |
| <pre><code>"repository": "npm/npm" |
| |
| "repository": "gist:11081aaa281" |
| |
| "repository": "bitbucket:example/repo" |
| |
| "repository": "gitlab:another/repo" |
| </code></pre><h2 id="scripts">scripts</h2> |
| <p>The "scripts" property is a dictionary containing script commands that are run |
| at various times in the lifecycle of your package. The key is the lifecycle |
| event, and the value is the command to run at that point.</p> |
| <p>See <code><a href="../misc/npm-scripts.html">npm-scripts(7)</a></code> to find out more about writing package scripts.</p> |
| <h2 id="config">config</h2> |
| <p>A "config" object can be used to set configuration parameters used in package |
| scripts that persist across upgrades. For instance, if a package had the |
| following:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "name" : "foo" |
| , "config" : { "port" : "8080" } } |
| </code></pre><p>and then had a "start" command that then referenced the |
| <code>npm_package_config_port</code> environment variable, then the user could |
| override that by doing <code>npm config set foo:port 8001</code>.</p> |
| <p>See <code><a href="../misc/npm-config.html">npm-config(7)</a></code> and <code><a href="../misc/npm-scripts.html">npm-scripts(7)</a></code> for more on package |
| configs.</p> |
| <h2 id="dependencies">dependencies</h2> |
| <p>Dependencies are specified in a simple object that maps a package name to a |
| version range. The version range is a string which has one or more |
| space-separated descriptors. Dependencies can also be identified with a |
| tarball or git URL.</p> |
| <p><strong>Please do not put test harnesses or transpilers in your |
| <code>dependencies</code> object.</strong> See <code>devDependencies</code>, below.</p> |
| <p>See <a href="../misc/semver.html">semver(7)</a> for more details about specifying version ranges.</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><code>version</code> Must match <code>version</code> exactly</li> |
| <li><code>>version</code> Must be greater than <code>version</code></li> |
| <li><code>>=version</code> etc</li> |
| <li><code><version</code></li> |
| <li><code><=version</code></li> |
| <li><code>~version</code> "Approximately equivalent to version" See <a href="../misc/semver.html">semver(7)</a></li> |
| <li><code>^version</code> "Compatible with version" See <a href="../misc/semver.html">semver(7)</a></li> |
| <li><code>1.2.x</code> 1.2.0, 1.2.1, etc., but not 1.3.0</li> |
| <li><code>http://...</code> See 'URLs as Dependencies' below</li> |
| <li><code>*</code> Matches any version</li> |
| <li><code>""</code> (just an empty string) Same as <code>*</code></li> |
| <li><code>version1 - version2</code> Same as <code>>=version1 <=version2</code>.</li> |
| <li><code>range1 || range2</code> Passes if either range1 or range2 are satisfied.</li> |
| <li><code>git...</code> See 'Git URLs as Dependencies' below</li> |
| <li><code>user/repo</code> See 'GitHub URLs' below</li> |
| <li><code>tag</code> A specific version tagged and published as <code>tag</code> See <code><a href="../cli/npm-tag.html">npm-tag(1)</a></code></li> |
| <li><code>path/path/path</code> See <a href="#local-paths">Local Paths</a> below</li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>For example, these are all valid:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "dependencies" : |
| { "foo" : "1.0.0 - 2.9999.9999" |
| , "bar" : ">=1.0.2 <2.1.2" |
| , "baz" : ">1.0.2 <=2.3.4" |
| , "boo" : "2.0.1" |
| , "qux" : "<1.0.0 || >=2.3.1 <2.4.5 || >=2.5.2 <3.0.0" |
| , "asd" : "http://asdf.com/asdf.tar.gz" |
| , "til" : "~1.2" |
| , "elf" : "~1.2.3" |
| , "two" : "2.x" |
| , "thr" : "3.3.x" |
| , "lat" : "latest" |
| , "dyl" : "file:../dyl" |
| } |
| } |
| </code></pre><h3 id="urls-as-dependencies">URLs as Dependencies</h3> |
| <p>You may specify a tarball URL in place of a version range.</p> |
| <p>This tarball will be downloaded and installed locally to your package at |
| install time.</p> |
| <h3 id="git-urls-as-dependencies">Git URLs as Dependencies</h3> |
| <p>Git urls can be of the form:</p> |
| <pre><code>git://github.com/user/project.git#commit-ish |
| git+ssh://user@hostname:project.git#commit-ish |
| git+ssh://user@hostname/project.git#commit-ish |
| git+http://user@hostname/project/blah.git#commit-ish |
| git+https://user@hostname/project/blah.git#commit-ish |
| </code></pre><p>The <code>commit-ish</code> can be any tag, sha, or branch which can be supplied as |
| an argument to <code>git checkout</code>. The default is <code>master</code>.</p> |
| <h2 id="github-urls">GitHub URLs</h2> |
| <p>As of version 1.1.65, you can refer to GitHub urls as just "foo": |
| "user/foo-project". Just as with git URLs, a <code>commit-ish</code> suffix can be |
| included. For example:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ |
| "name": "foo", |
| "version": "0.0.0", |
| "dependencies": { |
| "express": "visionmedia/express", |
| "mocha": "visionmedia/mocha#4727d357ea" |
| } |
| } |
| </code></pre><h2 id="local-paths">Local Paths</h2> |
| <p>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 <code>npm install --save</code>, using any of |
| these forms:</p> |
| <pre><code>../foo/bar |
| ~/foo/bar |
| ./foo/bar |
| /foo/bar |
| </code></pre><p>in which case they will be normalized to a relative path and added to your |
| <code>package.json</code>. For example:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ |
| "name": "baz", |
| "dependencies": { |
| "bar": "file:../foo/bar" |
| } |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>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.</p> |
| <h2 id="devdependencies">devDependencies</h2> |
| <p>If someone is planning on downloading and using your module in their |
| program, then they probably don't want or need to download and build |
| the external test or documentation framework that you use.</p> |
| <p>In this case, it's best to map these additional items in a <code>devDependencies</code> |
| object.</p> |
| <p>These things will be installed when doing <code>npm link</code> or <code>npm install</code> |
| from the root of a package, and can be managed like any other npm |
| configuration param. See <code><a href="../misc/npm-config.html">npm-config(7)</a></code> for more on the topic.</p> |
| <p>For build steps that are not platform-specific, such as compiling |
| CoffeeScript or other languages to JavaScript, use the <code>prepublish</code> |
| script to do this, and make the required package a devDependency.</p> |
| <p>For example:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "name": "ethopia-waza", |
| "description": "a delightfully fruity coffee varietal", |
| "version": "1.2.3", |
| "devDependencies": { |
| "coffee-script": "~1.6.3" |
| }, |
| "scripts": { |
| "prepublish": "coffee -o lib/ -c src/waza.coffee" |
| }, |
| "main": "lib/waza.js" |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>The <code>prepublish</code> script will be run before publishing, so that users |
| can consume the functionality without requiring them to compile it |
| themselves. In dev mode (ie, locally running <code>npm install</code>), it'll |
| run this script as well, so that you can test it easily.</p> |
| <h2 id="peerdependencies">peerDependencies</h2> |
| <p>In some cases, you want to express the compatibility of your package with a |
| host tool or library, while not necessarily doing a <code>require</code> of this host. |
| This is usually referred to as a <em>plugin</em>. Notably, your module may be exposing |
| a specific interface, expected and specified by the host documentation.</p> |
| <p>For example:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ |
| "name": "tea-latte", |
| "version": "1.3.5", |
| "peerDependencies": { |
| "tea": "2.x" |
| } |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>This ensures your package <code>tea-latte</code> can be installed <em>along</em> with the second |
| major version of the host package <code>tea</code> only. <code>npm install tea-latte</code> could |
| possibly yield the following dependency graph:</p> |
| <pre><code>├── tea-latte@1.3.5 |
| └── tea@2.2.0 |
| </code></pre><p><strong>NOTE: npm versions 1 and 2 will automatically install <code>peerDependencies</code> if |
| they are not explicitly depended upon higher in the dependency tree. In the |
| next major version of npm (npm@3), this will no longer be the case. You will |
| receive a warning that the peerDependency is not installed instead.</strong> The |
| behavior in npms 1 & 2 was frequently confusing and could easily put you into |
| dependency hell, a situation that npm is designed to avoid as much as possible.</p> |
| <p>Trying to install another plugin with a conflicting requirement will cause an |
| error. For this reason, make sure your plugin requirement is as broad as |
| possible, and not to lock it down to specific patch versions.</p> |
| <p>Assuming the host complies with <a href="http://semver.org/">semver</a>, only changes in |
| the host package's major version will break your plugin. Thus, if you've worked |
| with every 1.x version of the host package, use <code>"^1.0"</code> or <code>"1.x"</code> to express |
| this. If you depend on features introduced in 1.5.2, use <code>">= 1.5.2 < 2"</code>.</p> |
| <h2 id="bundleddependencies">bundledDependencies</h2> |
| <p>This defines an array of package names that will be bundled when publishing the package.</p> |
| <p>In cases where you need to preserve npm packages locally or have them available through a single file download, you can bundle the packages in a tarball file by specifying the package names in the <code>bundledDependencies</code> array and executing <code>npm pack</code>.</p> |
| <p>For example: |
| If we define a package.json like this:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ |
| "name": "awesome-web-framework", |
| "version": "1.0.0", |
| "bundledDependencies": [ |
| 'renderized', 'super-streams' |
| ] |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>we can obtain <code>awesome-web-framework-1.0.0.tgz</code> file by running <code>npm pack</code>. This file contains the dependencies <code>renderized</code> and <code>super-streams</code> which can be installed in a new project by executing <code>npm install awesome-web-framework-1.0.0.tgz</code>.</p> |
| <p>If this is spelled <code>"bundleDependencies"</code>, then that is also honored.</p> |
| <h2 id="optionaldependencies">optionalDependencies</h2> |
| <p>If a dependency can be used, but you would like npm to proceed if it cannot be |
| found or fails to install, then you may put it in the <code>optionalDependencies</code> |
| object. This is a map of package name to version or url, just like the |
| <code>dependencies</code> object. The difference is that build failures do not cause |
| installation to fail.</p> |
| <p>It is still your program's responsibility to handle the lack of the |
| dependency. For example, something like this:</p> |
| <pre><code>try { |
| var foo = require('foo') |
| var fooVersion = require('foo/package.json').version |
| } catch (er) { |
| foo = null |
| } |
| if ( notGoodFooVersion(fooVersion) ) { |
| foo = null |
| } |
| |
| // .. then later in your program .. |
| |
| if (foo) { |
| foo.doFooThings() |
| } |
| </code></pre><p>Entries in <code>optionalDependencies</code> will override entries of the same name in |
| <code>dependencies</code>, so it's usually best to only put in one place.</p> |
| <h2 id="engines">engines</h2> |
| <p>You can specify the version of node that your stuff works on:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "engines" : { "node" : ">=0.10.3 <0.12" } } |
| </code></pre><p>And, like with dependencies, if you don't specify the version (or if you |
| specify "*" as the version), then any version of node will do.</p> |
| <p>If you specify an "engines" field, then npm will require that "node" be |
| somewhere on that list. If "engines" is omitted, then npm will just assume |
| that it works on node.</p> |
| <p>You can also use the "engines" field to specify which versions of npm |
| are capable of properly installing your program. For example:</p> |
| <pre><code>{ "engines" : { "npm" : "~1.0.20" } } |
| </code></pre><p>Unless the user has set the <code>engine-strict</code> config flag, this |
| field is advisory only will produce warnings when your package is installed as a dependency.</p> |
| <h2 id="enginestrict">engineStrict</h2> |
| <p><strong>NOTE: This feature is deprecated and will be removed in npm 3.0.0.</strong></p> |
| <p>If you are sure that your module will <em>definitely not</em> run properly on |
| versions of Node/npm other than those specified in the <code>engines</code> object, |
| then you can set <code>"engineStrict": true</code> in your package.json file. |
| This will override the user's <code>engine-strict</code> config setting.</p> |
| <p>Please do not do this unless you are really very very sure. If your |
| engines object is something overly restrictive, you can quite easily and |
| inadvertently lock yourself into obscurity and prevent your users from |
| updating to new versions of Node. Consider this choice carefully.</p> |
| <h2 id="os">os</h2> |
| <p>You can specify which operating systems your |
| module will run on:</p> |
| <pre><code>"os" : [ "darwin", "linux" ] |
| </code></pre><p>You can also blacklist instead of whitelist operating systems, |
| just prepend the blacklisted os with a '!':</p> |
| <pre><code>"os" : [ "!win32" ] |
| </code></pre><p>The host operating system is determined by <code>process.platform</code></p> |
| <p>It is allowed to both blacklist, and whitelist, although there isn't any |
| good reason to do this.</p> |
| <h2 id="cpu">cpu</h2> |
| <p>If your code only runs on certain cpu architectures, |
| you can specify which ones.</p> |
| <pre><code>"cpu" : [ "x64", "ia32" ] |
| </code></pre><p>Like the <code>os</code> option, you can also blacklist architectures:</p> |
| <pre><code>"cpu" : [ "!arm", "!mips" ] |
| </code></pre><p>The host architecture is determined by <code>process.arch</code></p> |
| <h2 id="preferglobal">preferGlobal</h2> |
| <p>If your package is primarily a command-line application that should be |
| installed globally, then set this value to <code>true</code> to provide a warning |
| if it is installed locally.</p> |
| <p>It doesn't actually prevent users from installing it locally, but it |
| does help prevent some confusion if it doesn't work as expected.</p> |
| <h2 id="private">private</h2> |
| <p>If you set <code>"private": true</code> in your package.json, then npm will refuse |
| to publish it.</p> |
| <p>This is a way to prevent accidental publication of private repositories. If |
| you would like to ensure that a given package is only ever published to a |
| specific registry (for example, an internal registry), then use the |
| <code>publishConfig</code> dictionary described below to override the <code>registry</code> config |
| param at publish-time.</p> |
| <h2 id="publishconfig">publishConfig</h2> |
| <p>This is a set of config values that will be used at publish-time. It's |
| especially handy if you want to set the tag, registry or access, so that |
| you can ensure that a given package is not tagged with "latest", published |
| to the global public registry or that a scoped module is private by default.</p> |
| <p>Any config values can be overridden, but of course only "tag", "registry" and |
| "access" probably matter for the purposes of publishing.</p> |
| <p>See <code><a href="../misc/npm-config.html">npm-config(7)</a></code> to see the list of config options that can be |
| overridden.</p> |
| <h2 id="default-values">DEFAULT VALUES</h2> |
| <p>npm will default some values based on package contents.</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><p><code>"scripts": {"start": "node server.js"}</code></p> |
| <p>If there is a <code>server.js</code> file in the root of your package, then npm |
| will default the <code>start</code> command to <code>node server.js</code>.</p> |
| </li> |
| <li><p><code>"scripts":{"install": "node-gyp rebuild"}</code></p> |
| <p>If there is a <code>binding.gyp</code> file in the root of your package and you have not defined an <code>install</code> or <code>preinstall</code> script, npm will |
| default the <code>install</code> command to compile using node-gyp.</p> |
| </li> |
| <li><p><code>"contributors": [...]</code></p> |
| <p>If there is an <code>AUTHORS</code> file in the root of your package, npm will |
| treat each line as a <code>Name <email> (url)</code> format, where email and url |
| are optional. Lines which start with a <code>#</code> or are blank, will be |
| ignored.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <h2 id="see-also">SEE ALSO</h2> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="../misc/semver.html">semver(7)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../cli/npm-init.html">npm-init(1)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../cli/npm-version.html">npm-version(1)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../cli/npm-config.html">npm-config(1)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../misc/npm-config.html">npm-config(7)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../cli/npm-help.html">npm-help(1)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../misc/npm-faq.html">npm-faq(7)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../cli/npm-install.html">npm-install(1)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../cli/npm-publish.html">npm-publish(1)</a></li> |
| <li><a href="../cli/npm-uninstall.html">npm-uninstall(1)</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 id=npmlogo> |
| <tr><td style="width:180px;height:10px;background:rgb(237,127,127)" colspan=18> </td></tr> |
| <tr><td rowspan=4 style="width:10px;height:10px;background:rgb(237,127,127)"> </td><td style="width:40px;height:10px;background:#fff" colspan=4> </td><td style="width:10px;height:10px;background:rgb(237,127,127)" rowspan=4> </td><td style="width:40px;height:10px;background:#fff" colspan=4> </td><td rowspan=4 style="width:10px;height:10px;background:rgb(237,127,127)"> </td><td colspan=6 style="width:60px;height:10px;background:#fff"> </td><td style="width:10px;height:10px;background:rgb(237,127,127)" rowspan=4> </td></tr> |
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| <tr><td style="width:10px;height:10px;background:#fff" rowspan=2> </td></tr> |
| <tr><td style="width:10px;height:10px;background:#fff"> </td></tr> |
| <tr><td style="width:60px;height:10px;background:rgb(237,127,127)" colspan=6> </td><td colspan=10 style="width:10px;height:10px;background:rgb(237,127,127)"> </td></tr> |
| <tr><td colspan=5 style="width:50px;height:10px;background:#fff"> </td><td style="width:40px;height:10px;background:rgb(237,127,127)" colspan=4> </td><td style="width:90px;height:10px;background:#fff" colspan=9> </td></tr> |
| </table> |
| <p id="footer">package.json — npm@2.15.8</p> |
| |