How to install packages with NPM

We have seen that the main command to install packages in NPM is npm install. If we execute it alone, it will install the dependencies listed in the package.json file.

But we can also use npm install to add new packages to our project. Installing packages is the most common way to use NPM.

Through this command, we can install packages in two ways: locally, in the project folder, or globally, throughout the system. In this article, we will see the local installation of packages.

Local installation of packages

When installing a package locally, it is saved in the node_modules folder of our project, and will only be available for that particular project.

This is the most common form of installation, because it avoids conflicts between package versions used in different projects.

To install a package locally, we simply navigate to the root folder of the project, and execute this command,

npm install package-name

The package will be automatically downloaded from the NPM registry, saved in the node_modules folder, and added to the package.json file.

Example of package installation

Let’s say we are working on a Node.js project and want to use the express package, a popular library. To install it locally, we would execute the following command:

npm install express

This will download the express package from the NPM registry and save it in the node_modules folder of our project.