CODEWITHSUNDEEP
npmyarnpkg
Andreas
Andreas

Reputation: 2397

Is there any difference between installing global packages with Yarn or NPM?

Does it matter whether you install a global package with yarn global add PACKAGE vs npm install -g PACKAGE ?

Is there any difference at all, like where files are installed? If yes, what is it?

Upvotes: 9

Views: 4076

Answers (2)

Vu Luu
Vu Luu

Reputation: 790

This is the document about Yarn global

yarn global is a prefix used for a number of commands like add, bin, list and remove. They behave identically to their normal versions except that they use a global directory to store packages. The global command makes executables available to use on your operating system

and this is the document about npm install global mode

In global mode (ie, with -g or --global appended to the command), it installs the current package context (ie, the current working directory) as a global package.

I think there is no difference between them. Install a package as a global useful for developer tooling that is not part of any individual project but instead is used for local commands

Upvotes: -1

Tarun Lalwani
Tarun Lalwani

Reputation: 146530

So yes, you are right it is different. For npm it is something like below

/Users/tarunlalwani/.nvm/versions/node/v9.2.0/lib if you are using nvm

You can get this path using 

$ npm config get prefix
/Users/tarunlalwani/.nvm/versions/node/v9.2.0

Where does npm install packages?

While yarn uses other paths

  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%/Yarn/config/global
  • OSX and Linux non-root: ~/.config/yarn/global
  • Linux if logged in as root: /usr/local/share/.config/yarn/global

How to display yarn globally installed packages?

See this thread as well

https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/2049

Upvotes: 6

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