CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsnpm
Ben P.P. Tung
Ben P.P. Tung

Reputation: 1284

npm package is not listed in project's package.json but no extraneous error

I see a weird situation in my project. There are 3 packages not listed in package.json, but installed during the development process.

In my understanding, npm list should show me extraneous error. However, no error displayed. I am wondering how npm decides which package is extraneous or not?

The three packages are async, debug and mime. and I am using the npm 1.4.28

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2564

Answers (2)

Sam Mikes
Sam Mikes

Reputation: 10848

First off, you should update your npm, since 1.4.28 is quite old; latest is 2.4.1.

Secondly, a package is only extraneous if it is not a (dependency, devDependency, optionalDependency) named in package.json or any of its dependencies.

For example, I can create this scenario:

$ mkdir test && cd test $ echo {} > package.json $ npm install --save jslint $ npm install exit $ npm ls

Now exit is extraneous, even though it is a dependency of jslint, because jslint has its own version of exit under node_modules/jslint/node_modules/exit. Let's get rid of that:

$ rm -rf node_modules/jslint/node_module/exit $ npm ls

Now exit is no longer extraneous because it is needed to fulfill the dependency of jslint. But if I look in ./node_modules I will see two packages, exit and jslint, only one of which is named in package.json.

Please let me know if I have misunderstood your question.

Upvotes: 3

Ruslan Ismagilov
Ruslan Ismagilov

Reputation: 1348

I am wondering how npm decides which package is extraneous or not?

Installed package that is not in package.json will trigger npm extraneous error.

Try to refresh local node_modules directory. Install needed packages with --save/--save-dev key.

Upvotes: 0

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