npm install won't install devDependencies

Question

On windows for some reason when I run npm install it won\'t install devDependencies. AFAIK it should. If I run npm install --dev <

Answer 1

So the way I got around this was in the command where i would normally run npm install or npm ci, i added NODE_ENV=build, and then NODE_ENV=production after the command, so my entire command came out to:

RUN NODE_ENV=build && npm ci && NODE_ENV=production

So far I haven't had any bad reactions, and my development dependencies which are used for building the application all worked / loaded correctly.

I find this to be a better solution than adding an additional command like npm install --only=dev because it takes less time, and enables me to use the npm ci command, which is faster and specifically designed to be run inside CI tools / build scripts. (See npi-ci documentation for more information on it)

Answer 2

I had a package-lock.json file from an old version of my package.json, I deleted that and then everything installed correctly.

Answer 3

I have the same issue because I set the NODE_ENV=production while building Docker. Then I add one more npm install --only=dev. Everything works fine. I need the devDependencies for building TypeSciprt modules

RUN npm install
RUN npm install --only=dev