What is the --save option for npm install?

Question

I saw some tutorial where the command was:

npm install --save

What does the --save option mean?

Hamil

You can use shortcut -S and -D there -S is --save and -D is '--save-dev. --save (or simple -S): Package will appear in your dependencies. --save-dev (or simple -D): Package will appear in your devDependencies. – Conjuration

@WiredPrairie thanks I was trying npm install (--help | -h | -help ..) and nothing. – Lorgnon

thx @Dmitri, I had the same issue. come on NPM add that to your MAN page for your tool – Skywriting

I don't understand the rationale behind the decision of removing even just a mention of this option from the docs and help page without also deprecating it, at the very least, with a warning in the tool itself. Meanwhile newbies are exposed to it via zillions of tutorials. Then they try to find out what it does and have to waste 20 minutes perusing the docs, to eventually end up reading npm history on stackoverflow. Oddly enough preventing this sort of massive waste of time (if the popularity of the question is any indication) is one of the purposes of documentation. – Tman

As of 2020 it does not exist as parameter anymore. See full answer in this thread for further info instead of the comments to the question. – Zoie

@MichaelEkoka I am using React-Native for the first time and it is the finickiest piece of development software I have ever had. So far I've spent well over 20 hours debugging dependencies and zero time coding. It's great. There is no long term shared views between the modules. It's chaotic as hell and this is just another example it it. – Cirrose

As of now installed modules are added as a dependency by default, so the --save option is no longer needed. Thus, it's optional at the time of posting this comment. Not sure few seconds/minutes/hours afterwards. because they enjoy changing these options every often. – Llewellyn

Since new npm version no longe needs --save, but I am curious what did it save without --save before npm 5? global? – Brazenfaced

@Brazenfaced it did install the package to node_modules/, but not add it to the package.json. This meant you quickly forgot what packages your app was dependent on. Beautiful times. – Reasonable

@MichaelEkoka if they remove the option then all the newbies following old tutorials on the internet will struggle to follow along the tutorial due to an "unknown option error", best to keep it there and npm will just ignore it. – Squalor

Answer 1

Update npm 5:

As of npm 5.0.0, installed modules are added as a dependency by default, so the --save option is no longer needed. The other save options still exist and are listed in the documentation for npm install.

Original answer:

Before version 5, NPM simply installed a package under node_modules by default. When you were trying to install dependencies for your app/module, you would need to first install them, and then add them (along with the appropriate version number) to the dependencies section of your package.json.

The --save option instructed NPM to include the package inside of the dependencies section of your package.json automatically, thus saving you an additional step.

In addition, there are the complementary options --save-dev and --save-optional which save the package under devDependencies and optionalDependencies, respectively. This is useful when installing development-only packages, like grunt or your testing library.

Teletypewriter

Seriously, is this documented anywhere? I couldn't find it on Google or in the npm help. – Protostele

It would be nice if documentation for this showed up when npm install --help was used. – Stradivarius

@MarkStosberg: It is listed under npm help install, which brings up the man page for npm-install on my machine. – Teletypewriter

I wanted to update all of my not-versioned (version = ) dependencies and set them to a fixed version. npm install --save does not update these in the package.json if I'm correct. If someone else wants to do what I did as well, see the next hideous command you can run: cat package.json | sed -E 's/"([a-z -_.])":[ ]*"*",?/\1/g' | sed -E 's/[ ]*["|{|}].*//g' | tr '' ' ' | xargs npm install --save -frbl – Filia

Use --save --save-exact or --save-dev --save-exact to pin the semver range to a particular version, rather than using a caret. Also worth noting is that if you do e.g. npm install sails@balderdashy/sails#master --save --save-exact, you'll pin the dependency of the most recent commit on the master branch of the specified GitHub repo. – Veii

-S, --save: Package will appear in your dependencies. – Motivation

surprised this isn't the default, like composer – Gynecology

@jimsmith: As of npm 5.0, it is the default. – Teletypewriter

Does "npm update" on NPM 5 modifies package.json by default? – Jansenism

@IgorOkorokov: By default, I don't think so. npm update will comply with whatever version spec you already have in your package.json (so, it may perform an update, but only to a version that matches the specified pattern). If you want to save the updated version to your package.json, you can pass --save. – Teletypewriter

@Teletypewriter For me NPM 5 updates package versions in package.json. To avoid it i need to run 'npm update --no-save' – Jansenism

I know I shouldn't downvote an answer because I think that NPM has made a dumb decision. But, it's so compelling. :) – Pyrone

It appears that the obsolete save option has been removed from the official documentation of npm install. – Denomination

Just ran npm install -g --save @google-cloud/vision, it saved into C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules, but it's not added into package.json at all. Any thought? – Debrief

so all these people adding --save to their npm commands these days are doing it out of habit. – Estimative

Now that --save is the default you can use --no-save to not automatically add the dependency to your package.json – Guanabana

@Debrief - remove -g, to add it to your project's package.json. See https://mcmap.net/q/40800/-when-should-i-use-npm-with-quot-g-quot-flag-and-why, docs.npmjs.com/files/folders – Haematoxylin

Amazing that this is not documented anywhere but no matter. I noticed in the last couple of years that npm install and npm install --save did the same thing. – Vaginectomy

It still makes a difference. E.g. installing react-router-dom fails without --save. – Limburg

I have npm version 6. E.g, when I write npm install json-server, I already see it dependencies in package.json. In this case there is no difference between without save and with save. – Increase

Answer 2

Update as of npm 5:

As of npm 5.0.0 (released in May 2017), installed modules are added as a dependency by default, so the --save option is no longer needed.
The other save options still exist and are listed in the documentation for npm install.

---

Original Answer:

To add package in dependencies:

npm install my_dep --save

or

npm install my_dep -S

or

npm i my_dep -S

To add package in devDependencies

npm install my_test_framework --save-dev

or

npm install my_test_framework -D

or

npm i my_test_framework -D

package.json

Phallicism

be careful using shortcut versions like -S -D as they must be uppercase. I always make this mistake and npm doesn't complain or add it to package.json – Bouillon

It doesn't complain because -s (lowercase) is for the --silent option, and -d is for loglevel info which are both valid shortcuts. – Charity

Answer 3

Update as of npm 5:

As of npm 5.0.0, installed modules are added as a dependency by default, so the --save option is no longer needed. The other save options still exist and are listed in the documentation for npm install.

---

Original answer:

It won't do anything if you don't have a package.json file. Start by running npm init to create one. Then calls to npm install --save or npm install --save-dev or npm install --save-optional will update the package.json to list your dependencies.

Gynandrous

Just found out that it works retroactively (it seems). You can run your npm install --save-dev first, then npm init and your package.json will be populated. – Bonnette

Answer 4

According to NPM Doc:

So it seems that by running npm install package_name, the package dependency should be automatically added to package.json, right?

Gastrostomy

I guess --no-save is to use when you want functionality of like npm<5 – Sphinx

I see, npm config ls -l shows that by default, save-xxx options are all false, only save is true. – Gastrostomy

Looks like npm will not fire any error if you put a none exist option, like --save-xxxxxx. It just ignore it and the default behavior --save-prod will be in affect. Maybe --save comes from some old npm version. – Jaimiejain

Please review Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question? (e.g., "Images should only be used to illustrate problems that can't be made clear in any other way, such as to provide screenshots of a user interface.") and do the right thing (it covers answers as well). Thanks in advance. – Katheryn

Answer 5

You can also use -S, -D or -P which are equivalent of saving the package to an application dependency, a development dependency or production dependency. See more NPM shortcuts below:

-v: --version
-h, -?, --help, -H: --usage
-s, --silent: --loglevel silent
-q, --quiet: --loglevel warn
-d: --loglevel info
-dd, --verbose: --loglevel verbose
-ddd: --loglevel silly
-g: --global
-C: --prefix
-l: --long
-m: --message
-p, --porcelain: --parseable
-reg: --registry
-f: --force
-desc: --description
-S: --save
-P: --save-prod
-D: --save-dev
-O: --save-optional
-B: --save-bundle
-E: --save-exact
-y: --yes
-n: --yes false
ll and la commands: ls --long

This list of shortcuts can be obtained by running the following command:

npm help 7 config

Theorize

Answer 6

npm v6.x update

Now you can use one of npm i or npm i -S or npm i -P to install and save a module as a dependency.

npm i is the alias of npm install

1. npm i is equal to npm install, meaning the default save module as a dependency;
2. npm i -S is equal to npm install --save (npm v5-)
3. npm i -P is equal to npm install --save-prod (npm v5+)

Check out your npm version

npm -v

6.14.4

Get npm cli help information

npm -h

Usage: npm <command>

where <command> is one of:
    access, adduser, audit, bin, bugs, c, cache, ci, cit,
    clean-install, clean-install-test, completion, config,
    create, ddp, dedupe, deprecate, dist-tag, docs, doctor,
    edit, explore, fund, get, help, help-search, hook, i, init,
    install, install-ci-test, install-test, it, link, list, ln,
    login, logout, ls, org, outdated, owner, pack, ping, prefix,
    profile, prune, publish, rb, rebuild, repo, restart, root,
    run, run-script, s, se, search, set, shrinkwrap, star,
    stars, start, stop, t, team, test, token, tst, un,
    uninstall, unpublish, unstar, up, update, v, version, view,
    whoami

npm <command> -h  quick help on <command>
npm -l            display full usage info
npm help <term>   search for help on <term>
npm help npm      involved overview

Specify configs in the ini-formatted file:
    /Users/xgqfrms-mbp/.npmrc
or on the command line via: npm <command> --key value
Config info can be viewed via: npm help config

[email protected] /Users/xgqfrms-mbp/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.0/lib/node_modules/npm

Get npm install help

npm help install alias npm -h i

npm help install

# OR, alias
npm -h i

Output:

npm install (with no args, in package dir)
npm install [<@scope>/]<pkg>
npm install [<@scope>/]<pkg>@<tag>
npm install [<@scope>/]<pkg>@<version>
npm install [<@scope>/]<pkg>@<version range>
npm install <alias>@npm:<name>
npm install <folder>
npm install <tarball file>
npm install <tarball url>
npm install <git:// url>
npm install <github username>/<github project>

aliases: i, isntall, add
common options: [--save-prod|--save-dev|--save-optional] [--save-exact] [--no-save]
➜  ~

References

npm-install

Thrips

Answer 7

Use:

npm install package_x --save

The given package (package_x) will be saved in file package.json inside dependencies.

If you add

npm install <<package_x>> --save-dev

then it will be saved inside devDependencies.

Dewayne

What does your answer contribute that other answers haven't covered already? – Leger

@Pedro A -- My suspicion is that the guy rewrites what he just read; then has his friends give him up-votes. – Boult

Answer 8

As of npm 5, it is more favorable to use --save-prod (or -P) than --save but doing the same thing, as is stated in npm install. So far, --save still works if provided.

Sevier

This needs to go to the top to save us all an eyesore reading variations, contradictions and thread hijacks. SO needs to encourage succinct answers with valid URLs so we can avoid CRUD and get on with our work. (Quora has a neat 'Is this answer relevant' etc and I had even before that suggested to SO to do this) \n Sucks that the official node doc has no mention of older (defunct) options and most node references seem to be pre-5.0, sending our heads for a spin. – Isodiametric

Answer 9

As of npm 5, npm will now save by default.

In case, if you would like npm to work in a similar old fashion (no autosave) to how it was working in previous versions, you can update the config option to enable autosave as below.

npm config set save false

To get the current setting, you can execute the following command:

npm config get save

Source: Here’s what you need to know about npm 5

Roundfaced

Answer 10

–npm install --save or -S: When the following command is used with npm install, this will save all your installed core packages into the dependency section in the package.json file. Core dependencies are those packages without which your application will not give the desired results.

But as mentioned earlier, it is an unnecessary feature in the npm 5.0.0 version onwards.

npm install --save

Richel

Answer 11

npm install --save or npm install --save-dev is why we choose one option between these two, while installing the package in our project.

Things are clear from the previous answers that npm install --save will add an entry in the dependency field in the package.json file and other one in dev-dependency.

So the question arises: Why do we need an entry of our installing module in package.json file, because whenever we check in code in Git or giving our code to someone, we always give it or check it without the node_modules folder, because it is very large in size and is also available at a common place, so to avoid this, we do that.

So then how another person will get all the modules that is specifically or needed for that project so answers is from the package.json file that have the entry of all the required packages for running or developing that project.

So after getting the code we simply need to run the npm install command. It will read the package.json file and install the necessary required packages.

Peseta

Answer 12

npm i (Package name) --save

Simply, using the above command we’ll not need to write the package name in your package.json file, it’ll auto add its name and dependency with version that you’ll need at time when you go for production or set up another time.

npm help install

The above command will help to find out more options and correct def.shown in the picture:

Riley

Please review Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question? (e.g., "Images should only be used to illustrate problems that can't be made clear in any other way, such as to provide screenshots of a user interface.") and do the right thing (it covers answers as well). Thanks in advance. – Katheryn

Sure, Will keep it in mind for further posts/answers. Thanks @PeterMortensen – Riley

Answer 13

The easier (and more awesome) way to add dependencies to your package.json is to do so from the command line, flagging the npm install command with either --save or --save-dev, depending on how you'd like to use that dependency.

Freedom

Answer 14

In npm version 4, if you run the command npm install express without the --save or --save-dev flags, npm will still install the express package, but it will not add it to the dependencies or devDependencies section of your package.json file.

To explicitly save the dependency in the package.json file, you should use the --save flag:

npm install express --save

If you don't use the --save flag, the package will be installed locally in the node_modules directory, but the information about the dependency won't be added to the package.json file.

Starting from npm version 5 and later, npm introduced the automatic saving of dependencies without the need for the --save flag. If you are using a version of npm that is 5 or later, running npm install express will automatically add the dependency to the dependencies section of your package.json file.

Couloir

Answer 15

When you are using --save in the npm command to install a package, this means that your project will install those dependencies in the production environment, for example, if you install a library to manage dates.

npm install moment --save
npm i moment -S (same result)

(this is for a production environment)

npm install moment --save--dev
npm i moment -D (same result)

(this is for a development environment)

Respectful

Answer 16

npm i pdf.js-viewer --save

In npm, the --save flag is used to automatically update the dependencies section of your package.json file with the installed package and its version. It indicates that the package should be added as a dependency of your project. This is particularly useful when you want to keep track of the dependencies used in your project and ensure that others working on the project can easily install the same dependencies.

For example, when you run:

npm i pdf.js-viewer --save

It will install the pdf.js-viewer package and add an entry to your package.json file under the dependencies section, like this:

"dependencies": {
  "pdf.js-viewer": "^x.x.x"
}

The ^x.x.x signifies that npm can install any future compatible version of the package when you run npm install in the future.

If you don't include the --save flag when installing a package, npm will still install the package locally, but it won't add it to your package.json file. This means that you won't have an explicit record of the package as a dependency of your project, and others working on the project won't automatically install it when they clone your project or run npm install.

If you're not working in an Angular project, the installation process remains the same. However, the usage and integration of the pdf.js-viewer package may vary depending on the framework or environment you're working with. Make sure to consult the package's documentation for instructions specific to your project setup.

Dimidiate