CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsnpm
user6801750
user6801750

Reputation: 242

NPM install bunch of packages not from package.json file

Using Visual Studio code as IDE but lately when I run the command - npm install from the app folder of the solution it installs around 374 items under "node_modules" instead of just installing the packages from the package.json file.

Can someone please provide some pointers for this behavior?

My versions: node -v v6.9.1 npm -v 3.10.8

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1845

Answers (1)

Mchl
Mchl

Reputation: 62387

Go to your node_modules folder and find one of the folders matching the libraries from your package.json file. Inside you will find another package.json which describes this library. It is most likely it will also have at least a couple of entries in dependencies section.

When you run npm install npm builds so-called 'dependency tree'. It starts with your top-level package.json and checks what dependencies needs to be installed, then (using its registry) it checks what are the dependencies of these dependencies and then their dependencies and so on...

It is prudent (but often neglected) to check what are the dependencies of the libraries you decide to use. Some of them might have licenses incompatible with yours. Some of them might need a ton of code to perform a simple thing. Many will use deprecated versions, which will spam your npm install log with warnings and might actually cause some conflicts with your other dependencies.

Upvotes: 2

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