How to install npm packages as a non-root user
After running this script, you will be able run npm install -g without sudo, becausenpm will install packages as your non-root user. The script will set up npm user directories for you, and then add them to your $PATH.
Packages can then be installed without root privileges:
$ npm install -g yarn
$ type yarn
yarn is /home/user/.npm-packages/bin/yarn
Usage
Run the following:
$ curl -s "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alexdelorenzo/npm-user/main/npm-user.sh" | bash
You can check out the script’s requirements here.
Options
The script takes 6 optional positional arguments, or you can set environment variables:
| Position | Variable name | Description | Default value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $ROOT |
The root directory for npm |
$HOME |
| 2 | $SHELL_NAME |
Name of the shell to configure | Current shell |
| 3 | $SHELL_RC |
Shell configuration file, automatically detected | $HOME/.profile |
| 4 | $BIN |
npm’s executable directory |
$ROOT/.npm-packages/bin |
| 5 | $MAN |
Manpage directory for npm |
$ROOT/.npm-packages/share/man |
| 6 | $REINSTALL |
Set to any non-null value to reinstall old npm packages in your new $ROOT |
Unset |
Passing options
If you want to set your npm path to ~/.local/.npm-packages, instead of ~/.npm-packages, and configure zsh to work with it, you can run:
$ export URL="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alexdelorenzo/npm-user/main/npm-user.sh"
$ curl -s "$URL" | bash -s "~/.local" "zsh"
You can also use environment variables:
$ export ROOT="~/.local" SHELL_NAME="zsh"
$ curl -s "$URL" | bash
Confirming it works
Install a package with the global flag -g and then see where npm puts the files:
$ npm install -g yarn
$ type yarn
yarn is /home/user/.npm-packages/bin/yarn
Requirements
Click here to see the dependencies and supported systems for this script
Dependencies
- Bash, GNU Coreutils and
grep curl- NPM
Supported systems
Shells
This script works with configuration files for the following shells:
bashzshfishsh
The script will default to $HOME/.profile if it doesn’t recognize any of the shells from above. ksh uses $HOME/.profile, but the script wasn’t tested on it.
Operating systems
This script will work on any POSIX compatible system or compatibility layer.
- Linux
- *BSD
- macOS
- WSL 1 & 2 on Windows
- Cygwin or MSYS2 on Windows
Script
You can check out the script on GitHub via the 🏠npm-user project.
