How to install npm -g on offline server

Question

I need to install a "global" npm applications on an offline server.

It is easy to install a normal application:

npm install

and then pack up the resulting files. Either manually or using npm pack.

However, how can I install global application (that has a install script of some sort) such as forever without Internet?

npm install -g forever

Rationality

Answer 1

try npmbox, it is the new name of npmzip which will allow you to install offline npm packages by one file

Polemic

I installed npmbox pn the server but how to install pm2 using that? – Kramer

Sorry but didn't work for me. Spent quite a bit of time trying until desisted. Did find how and posted below. – Caudate

npmbox is a dead project. Don't bother. – Jehoash

my question how to install npmbox without internet access? – Spellbound

npmbox does not work anymore. – Meaty

Answer 2

You can install stuff from a tarball file, check out the npm documentation. You can find the URL of the forever tarball with npm view forever dist.tarball and download that. Try something like this:

curl -so forever.tar.gz `npm view forever dist.tarball 2> /dev/null`
npm install ./forever.tar.gz -g

But you might have to do this for all of the dependencies as well. There might be a better way but this is what I've found in my search.

Athapaskan

Thanks for your answer. However, it immediately tries to pull in the dependencies from Internet. npm http GET registry.npmjs.org/broadway – Rationality

Naturally, you would need to install any dependencies first. – Blanchard

You are correct Kato. But how? There are a lot of dependencies for forever. – Rationality

Answer 3

Well.... after a day trying to make it work with above references (npmbox or offline-npm) came up with something way much simpler. Thanks to npmbox I have to say. The idea is the keep the cache from the instance that has online access and then use it in the one offline.

In machine with internet:

1 - clear npm cache: npm cache clear

2 - install package, lets say its x.y.z: npm install -g **package.x.y.z**

3 - copy cache in to a folder... let's call it whatever (I assume npm cache is in root folder, not absolutely sure about that): cp -R /.npm/* **/cache-whatever-folder**

In machine with no internet:

4 - take this cache-whatever-folder to the instance with no internet and after that, clean cache and install with it (I won't indicate how to copy the folder :)

npm cache clear

npm install --global --cache **/cache-whatever-folder** --optional --cache-min 99999999999 --shrinkwrap false **package.x.y.z**

Done

Unitary

npm-cache makes no guarantees that the cache will be complete or not corrupted. How this could happen could be due to auto cache cleanup, or hash collisions. The npm-cache docs say this "npm makes no guarantee that a previously-cached piece of data will be available later" – Junno

do i just copy the npm-cache folder and replace in other machine? I am using windows not sure how u used the cp command. If you could elaborate the file path it would be awesome. – Closeknit

Yes, @MurtazaHaji, get the data from %AppData%/npm-cache in the machine with internet access and copy it to the one the hasn't. – Caudate

Answer 4

INSTALL PM2 OFFLINE:-

Tested on Node-v6.10.3 and Npm-3.10.10 on RHEL-7

Go to machine with internet connection:-

#npm install -g npmbox
#npmbox npmbox
#scp npmbox.npmbox root@offline-server-ip:.

Go to machine without internet connection :-

#ssh  root@offline-server-ip 
#tar --no-same-owner --no-same-permissions -xvzf npmbox.npmbox
#npm install --global --cache ./.npmbox.cache --optional --cache-min 99999999999 --shrinkwrap false npmbox

Go to machine with internet connection:-

#npm install pm2 -g
#npmbox pm2
#scp pm2.npmbox root@offline-server-ip:.

Go to machine without internet connection :-

#npmunbox pm2.npmbox --global
#pm2 ls

Diplomatic

Answer 5

I created offline-npm for getting all the dependencies installed in a clean way. For modules without the use of node-gyp everything should work as described.

If you require node-gyp (which is usually installed online) consider copying ~/.node-gyp to that offline machine.

Jobbery

Answer 6

Try npmzip

npm install -g npmzip
npmzip <package>

You will get the tarball in the current directory This may be moved to the target machine and :

npmunzip <tarball>

Glandulous

npm can handel tar.gz zip git svn by default manual – Separate

Answer 7

Using Yarn:

1. On the internet machine (configure local cache location):

   yarn config set yarn-offline-mirror ~/yarn-offline-mirror/
   

2. On the offline machine (configure local cache location):

   yarn config set yarn-offline-mirror ~/yarn-offline-mirror/
   

3. On the offline machine, Find out where is the global installation location:

   yarn global bin
   

   (Or set it with yarn config set prefix <file_path>)

4. On the offline machine, add it to your path. E.g.:

   echo 'export PATH=$PATH:'"$(yarn global bin)" >> ~/.bashrc  
   source ~/.bashrc # reload
   

5. On the internet machine, download forever's dependencies:

   mkdir new-cli-forever/
   cd new-cli-forever/
   yarn add forever
   

   Then copy new-cli-forever/yarn.lock and ~/yarn-offline-mirror/ to the offline machine. (rm -rf new-cli-forever/ is ok now.)

6. On the offline machine, install forever from local cache:

   cp /path/to/imported/yarn.lock .
   cp -n /path/to/imported/yarn-offline-mirror/* ~/yarn-offline-mirror/
   yarn global add --offline forever
   rm -f ./yarn.lock
   

For more info, see my post here: https://assafmo.github.io/2018/04/11/yarn-offline.html

Mensal

How do you get yarn to the offline machine in the first place? – Sclater

Thanks a lot, this is the only solution of this thread that worked for me. My only remark is that in my case, I had to run yarn --offline to create the project before yarn global add --offline dep. Otherwise, it did not work – Anorthic

Oh, and also, you can force engine versions with this option : --ignore-engines. For instance, yarn add --ignore-engines dep In my case, this came helpful to install pm2 – Anorthic

Umm. How to get yarn on the offline server? – Cambell

Answer 8

List the dependencies in bundledDependencies in your package.json, and then run npm pack to create a tarball. Get that over to the other machine, and either npm install <tarball>, or just crack it open manually.

https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1349

Philosophical

Answer 9

npmbox is outdated

Use npm pack command (npm docs), no need to install anything.

Single package

If you want only one package (for example, forever), you can run:

npm pack forever

this command will fetch it to the cache, and then copy the tarball to the current working directory as -.tgz

Then, from the folder you created the package, you install it with:

npm install -g ./forever-x.y.z.tgz

---

Whole project

If you want a whole project to be installed offline, include a poperty in your package.json named bundleDependencies and list all dependecies you need in this field.

// package.json

"dependencies": {
  "archiver": "^2.1.1",
  "axios": "^0.16.2",
  "body-parser": "^1.18.3"
},
"bundleDependencies": {
  "archiver": "^2.1.1",
  "axios": "^0.16.2",
  "body-parser": "^1.18.3"
}

Then run npm pack.

It will create a .tgz file of your whole project and dependencias.

You just have to copy it to the offline server and untar.

Truism

Answer 10

On your local machine or any machine that has internet connection, do

npm install npm-bundle -g
npm install forever -g

Now, go to cd /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever and do

npm-bundle

It will create a .tgz file. Now scp/ftp that .tgz file to the offline server and do

npm install forever -g

Reference: This blog

Recife

Followed all steps , still npm install timesout because its trying to connect to registry.npmjs.org which isnt allowed in my production machine – Closeknit

Answer 11

On an online machine do:

# change to desired packages
packages="pm2 yarn"
for pkg in $packages; do
    mkdir "$pkg"
    curl "$(npm view "$pkg" dist.tarball)" |
    tar -xzC "$pkg" --strip-components 1
    (cd "$pkg" && npm install)
done
tar -czf packages.tar.gz $packages

On the offline server do:

npm config set offline
tar -xzf packages.tar.gz
npm install -g pm2 yarn

Pantheas