How to use executables from a package installed locally in node_modules?

Question

How do I use a local version of a module in node.js. For example, in my app, I installed coffee-script:

npm install coffee-script

Answer 1

I encountered the same problem and I don't particularly like using aliases (as regular's suggested), and if you don't like them too then here's another workaround that I use, you first have to create a tiny executable bash script, say setenv.sh:

#!/bin/sh

# Add your local node_modules bin to the path
export PATH="$(npm bin):$PATH"

# execute the rest of the command
exec "$@"

and then you can then use any executables in your local /bin using this command:

./setenv.sh <command>
./setenv.sh 6to5-node server.js
./setenv.sh grunt

If you're using scripts in package.json then:

...,
scripts: {
    'start': './setenv.sh <command>'
}

Answer 2

I've always used the same approach as @guneysus to solve this problem, which is creating a script in the package.json file and use it running npm run script-name.

However, in the recent months I've been using npx and I love it.

For example, I downloaded an Angular project and I didn't want to install the Angular CLI globally. So, with npx installed, instead of using the global angular cli command (if I had installed it) like this:

ng serve

I can do this from the console:

npx ng serve

Here's an article I wrote about NPX and that goes deeper into it.

Answer 3

I am a Windows user and this is what worked for me:

// First set some variable - i.e. replace is with "xo"
D:\project\root> set xo="./node_modules/.bin/"

// Next, work with it
D:\project\root> %xo%/bower install

Good Luck.

Answer 4

update: If you're on the recent npm (version >5.2)

You can use:

npx <command>

npx looks for command in .bin directory of your node_modules

old answer:

For Windows

Store the following in a file called npm-exec.bat and add it to your %PATH%

@echo off
set cmd="npm bin"
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%i IN (' %cmd% ') DO SET modules=%%i
"%modules%"\%*

Usage

Then you can use it like npm-exec <command> <arg0> <arg1> ...

For example

To execute wdio installed in local node_modules directory, do:

npm-exec wdio wdio.conf.js

i.e. it will run .\node_modules\.bin\wdio wdio.conf.js

Answer 5

Update: I no longer recommend this method, both for the mentioned security reasons and not the least the newer npm bin command. Original answer below:

As you have found out, any locally installed binaries are in ./node_modules/.bin. In order to always run binaries in this directory rather than globally available binaries, if present, I suggest you put ./node_modules/.bin first in your path:

export PATH="./node_modules/.bin:$PATH"

If you put this in your ~/.profile, coffee will always be ./node_modules/.bin/coffee if available, otherwise /usr/local/bin/coffee (or whatever prefix you are installing node modules under).

Answer 6

Same @regular 's accepted solution, but Fish shell flavour

if not contains (npm bin) $PATH
    set PATH (npm bin) $PATH
end