How do I install package.json dependencies in the current directory using npm

Question

I have a web app: fooapp. I have a package.json in the root. I want to install all the dependencies in a specific node_modules directory

Answer 1

Just execute

sudo npm i --save

That's all

Answer 2

In my case I need to do

sudo npm install  

my project is inside /var/www so I also need to set proper permissions.

Answer 3

Running:

npm install

from inside your app directory (i.e. where package.json is located) will install the dependencies for your app, rather than install it as a module, as described here. These will be placed in ./node_modules relative to your package.json file (it's actually slightly more complex than this, so check the npm docs here).

You are free to move the node_modules dir to the parent dir of your app if you want, because node's 'require' mechanism understands this. However, if you want to update your app's dependencies with install/update, npm will not see the relocated 'node_modules' and will instead create a new dir, again relative to package.json.

To prevent this, just create a symlink to the relocated node_modules from your app dir:

ln -s ../node_modules node_modules