What is the difference between --save and --save-dev?

Question

What is the difference between:

npm install [package_name]

and:

npm install [package_name] --save

and:

Answer 1

By default, NPM simply installs a package under node_modules. When you're trying to install dependencies for your app/module, you would need to first install them, and then add them to the dependencies section of your package.json.

--save-dev adds the third-party package to the package's development dependencies. It won't be installed when someone runs npm install directly to install your package. It's typically only installed if someone clones your source repository first and then runs npm install in it.

--save adds the third-party package to the package's dependencies. It will be installed together with the package whenever someone runs npm install package.

Dev dependencies are those dependencies that are only needed for developing the package. That can include test runners, compilers, packagers, etc. Both types of dependencies are stored in the package's package.json file. --save adds to dependencies, --save-dev adds to devDependencies

npm install documentation can be referred here.

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Please note that --save is now the default option, since NPM 5. Therefore, it is not explicitly needed anymore. It is possible to run npm install without the --save to achieve the same result.