man npm-config (7): More than you probably want to know about npm configuration

DESCRIPTION

npm gets its configuration values from 6 sources, in this priority:

Command Line Flags

Putting --foo bar on the command line sets the foo configuration parameter to "bar". A -- argument tells the cli parser to stop reading flags. A --flag parameter that is at the end of the command will be given the value of true.

Environment Variables

Any environment variables that start with npm_config_ will be interpreted as a configuration parameter. For example, putting npm_config_foo=bar in your environment will set the foo configuration parameter to bar. Any environment configurations that are not given a value will be given the value of true. Config values are case-insensitive, so NPM_CONFIG_FOO=bar will work the same.

npmrc Files

The four relevant files are:

•: per-project config file (/path/to/my/project/.npmrc)
•: per-user config file (~/.npmrc)
•: global config file ($PREFIX/npmrc)
•: npm builtin config file (/path/to/npm/npmrc)

npm help See npmrc for more details.

Default Configs

A set of configuration parameters that are internal to npm, and are defaults if nothing else is specified.

Shorthands and Other CLI Niceties

The following shorthands are parsed on the command-line:

•: -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
•: -l: --long
•: -m: --message
•: -p, --porcelain: --parseable
•: -reg: --registry
•: -v: --version
•: -f: --force
•: -desc: --description
•: -S: --save
•: -D: --save-dev
•: -O: --save-optional
•: -B: --save-bundle
•: -E: --save-exact
•: -y: --yes
•: -n: --yes false
•: ll and la commands: ls --long

If the specified configuration param resolves unambiguously to a known configuration parameter, then it is expanded to that configuration parameter. For example:

npm ls --par
# same as:
npm ls --parseable

If multiple single-character shorthands are strung together, and the resulting combination is unambiguously not some other configuration param, then it is expanded to its various component pieces. For example:

npm ls -gpld
# same as:
npm ls --global --parseable --long --loglevel info

Per-Package Config Settings

When running scripts (npm help see npm-scripts) the package.json "config" keys are overwritten in the environment if there is a config param of <name>[@<version>]:<key>. For example, if the package.json has this:

{ "name" : "foo"
, "config" : { "port" : "8080" }
, "scripts" : { "start" : "node server.js" } }

and the server.js is this:

http.createServer(...).listen(process.env.npm_package_config_port)

then the user could change the behavior by doing:

npm config set foo:port 80

npm help See package.json for more information.

Config Settings

always-auth

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Force npm to always require authentication when accessing the registry, even for GET requests.

bin-links

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

Tells npm to create symlinks (or .cmd shims on Windows) for package executables.

Set to false to have it not do this. This can be used to work around the fact that some file systems don't support symlinks, even on ostensibly Unix systems.

browser

•: Default: OS X: "open", Windows: "start", Others: "xdg-open"
•: Type: String

The browser that is called by the npm docs command to open websites.

ca

•: Default: The npm CA certificate
•: Type: String or null

The Certificate Authority signing certificate that is trusted for SSL connections to the registry.

Set to null to only allow "known" registrars, or to a specific CA cert to trust only that specific signing authority.

cafile

•: Default: null
•: Type: path

A path to a file containing one or multiple Certificate Authority signing certificates. Similar to the ca setting, but allows for multiple CA's, as well as for the CA information to be stored in a file on disk.

cache

•: Default: Windows: %AppData%\npm-cache, Posix: ~/.npm
•: Type: path

npm help The location of npm's cache directory. See npm-cache

cache-lock-stale

•: Default: 60000 (1 minute)
•: Type: Number

The number of ms before cache folder lockfiles are considered stale.

cache-lock-retries

•: Default: 10
•: Type: Number

Number of times to retry to acquire a lock on cache folder lockfiles.

cache-lock-wait

•: Default: 10000 (10 seconds)
•: Type: Number

Number of ms to wait for cache lock files to expire.

cache-max

•: Default: Infinity
•: Type: Number

The maximum time (in seconds) to keep items in the registry cache before re-checking against the registry.

Note that no purging is done unless the npm cache clean command is explicitly used, and that only GET requests use the cache.

cache-min

•: Default: 10
•: Type: Number

The minimum time (in seconds) to keep items in the registry cache before re-checking against the registry.

Note that no purging is done unless the npm cache clean command is explicitly used, and that only GET requests use the cache.

cert

•: Default: null
•: Type: String

A client certificate to pass when accessing the registry.

color

•: Default: true on Posix, false on Windows
•: Type: Boolean or "always"

If false, never shows colors. If "always" then always shows colors. If true, then only prints color codes for tty file descriptors.

depth

•: Default: Infinity
•: Type: Number

The depth to go when recursing directories for npm ls and npm cache ls.

description

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

Show the description in npm search

dev

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Install dev-dependencies along with packages.

Note that dev-dependencies are also installed if the npat flag is set.

editor

•: Default: EDITOR environment variable if set, or "vi" on Posix, or "notepad" on Windows.
•: Type: path

The command to run for npm edit or npm config edit.

email

The email of the logged-in user.

Set by the npm adduser command. Should not be set explicitly.

engine-strict

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

If set to true, then npm will stubbornly refuse to install (or even consider installing) any package that claims to not be compatible with the current Node.js version.

force

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Makes various commands more forceful.

•: lifecycle script failure does not block progress.
•: publishing clobbers previously published versions.
•: skips cache when requesting from the registry.
•: prevents checks against clobbering non-npm files.

fetch-retries

•: Default: 2
•: Type: Number

The "retries" config for the retry module to use when fetching packages from the registry.

fetch-retry-factor

•: Default: 10
•: Type: Number

The "factor" config for the retry module to use when fetching packages.

fetch-retry-mintimeout

•: Default: 10000 (10 seconds)
•: Type: Number

The "minTimeout" config for the retry module to use when fetching packages.

fetch-retry-maxtimeout

•: Default: 60000 (1 minute)
•: Type: Number

The "maxTimeout" config for the retry module to use when fetching packages.

git

•: Default: "git"
•: Type: String

The command to use for git commands. If git is installed on the computer, but is not in the PATH, then set this to the full path to the git binary.

git-tag-version

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

Tag the commit when using the npm version command.

global

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

npm help Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into the prefix folder instead of the current working directory. See npm-folders for more on the differences in behavior.

•: packages are installed into the {prefix}/lib/node_modules folder, instead of the current working directory.
•: bin files are linked to {prefix}/bin
•: man pages are linked to {prefix}/share/man

globalconfig

•: Default: {prefix}/etc/npmrc
•: Type: path

The config file to read for global config options.

group

•: Default: GID of the current process
•: Type: String or Number

The group to use when running package scripts in global mode as the root user.

heading

•: Default: "npm"
•: Type: String

The string that starts all the debugging log output.

https-proxy

•: Default: the HTTPS_PROXY or https_proxy or HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy environment variables.
•: Type: url

A proxy to use for outgoing https requests.

ignore-scripts

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

If true, npm does not run scripts specified in package.json files.

init-module

•: Default: ~/.npm-init.js
•: Type: path

npm help A module that will be loaded by the npm init command. See the documentation for the init-package-json https://github.com/isaacs/init-package-json module for more information, or npm-init.

init.author.name

•: Default: ""
•: Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's name.

init.author.email

•: Default: ""
•: Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's email.

init.author.url

•: Default: ""
•: Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's homepage.

init.license

•: Default: "ISC"
•: Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package license.

json

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.

This feature is currently experimental, and the output data structures for many commands is either not implemented in JSON yet, or subject to change. Only the output from npm ls --json is currently valid.

key

•: Default: null
•: Type: String

A client key to pass when accessing the registry.

link

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

If true, then local installs will link if there is a suitable globally installed package.

Note that this means that local installs can cause things to be installed into the global space at the same time. The link is only done if one of the two conditions are met:

•: The package is not already installed globally, or
•: the globally installed version is identical to the version that is being installed locally.

local-address

•: Default: undefined
•: Type: IP Address

The IP address of the local interface to use when making connections to the npm registry. Must be IPv4 in versions of Node prior to 0.12.

loglevel

•: Default: "http"
•: Type: String
•: Values: "silent", "win", "error", "warn", "http", "info", "verbose", "silly"

What level of logs to report. On failure, all logs are written to npm-debug.log in the current working directory.

Any logs of a higher level than the setting are shown. The default is "http", which shows http, warn, and error output.

logstream

•: Default: process.stderr
•: Type: Stream

This is the stream that is passed to the npmlog https://github.com/npm/npmlog module at run time.

It cannot be set from the command line, but if you are using npm programmatically, you may wish to send logs to somewhere other than stderr.

If the color config is set to true, then this stream will receive colored output if it is a TTY.

long

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Show extended information in npm ls and npm search.

message

•: Default: "%s"
•: Type: String

Commit message which is used by npm version when creating version commit.

Any "%s" in the message will be replaced with the version number.

node-version

•: Default: process.version
•: Type: semver or false

The node version to use when checking package's "engines" hash.

npat

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Run tests on installation.

onload-script

•: Default: false
•: Type: path

A node module to require() when npm loads. Useful for programmatic usage.

optional

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

Attempt to install packages in the optionalDependencies hash. Note that if these packages fail to install, the overall installation process is not aborted.

parseable

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Output parseable results from commands that write to standard output.

prefix

•: npm help Default: see npm-folders
•: Type: path

The location to install global items. If set on the command line, then it forces non-global commands to run in the specified folder.

production

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Set to true to run in "production" mode.

1.: devDependencies are not installed at the topmost level when running local npm install without any arguments.
2.: Set the NODE_ENV="production" for lifecycle scripts.

proprietary-attribs

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

Whether or not to include proprietary extended attributes in the tarballs created by npm.

Unless you are expecting to unpack package tarballs with something other than npm -- particularly a very outdated tar implementation -- leave this as true.

proxy

•: Default: HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy environment variable, or null
•: Type: url

A proxy to use for outgoing http requests.

rebuild-bundle

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

Rebuild bundled dependencies after installation.

registry

•: Default: https://registry.npmjs.org/
•: Type: url

The base URL of the npm package registry.

rollback

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

Remove failed installs.

save

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Save installed packages to a package.json file as dependencies.

When used with the npm rm command, it removes it from the dependencies hash.

Only works if there is already a package.json file present.

save-bundle

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

If a package would be saved at install time by the use of --save, --save-dev, or --save-optional, then also put it in the bundleDependencies list.

When used with the npm rm command, it removes it from the bundledDependencies list.

save-dev

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Save installed packages to a package.json file as devDependencies.

When used with the npm rm command, it removes it from the devDependencies hash.

Only works if there is already a package.json file present.

save-exact

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Dependencies saved to package.json using --save, --save-dev or --save-optional will be configured with an exact version rather than using npm's default semver range operator.

save-optional

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Save installed packages to a package.json file as optionalDependencies.

When used with the npm rm command, it removes it from the devDependencies hash.

Only works if there is already a package.json file present.

save-prefix

•: Default: '^'
•: Type: String

Configure how versions of packages installed to a package.json file via --save or --save-dev get prefixed.

For example if a package has version 1.2.3, by default it's version is set to ^1.2.3 which allows minor upgrades for that package, but after
npm config set save-prefix='~' it would be set to ~1.2.3 which only allows patch upgrades.

searchopts

•: Default: ""
•: Type: String

Space-separated options that are always passed to search.

searchexclude

•: Default: ""
•: Type: String

Space-separated options that limit the results from search.

searchsort

•: Default: "name"
•: Type: String
•: Values: "name", "-name", "date", "-date", "description", "-description", "keywords", "-keywords"

Indication of which field to sort search results by. Prefix with a - character to indicate reverse sort.

shell

•: Default: SHELL environment variable, or "bash" on Posix, or "cmd" on Windows
•: Type: path

The shell to run for the npm explore command.

shrinkwrap

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

If set to false, then ignore npm-shrinkwrap.json files when installing.

sign-git-tag

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

If set to true, then the npm version command will tag the version using -s to add a signature.

Note that git requires you to have set up GPG keys in your git configs for this to work properly.

spin

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean or "always"

When set to true, npm will display an ascii spinner while it is doing things, if process.stderr is a TTY.

Set to false to suppress the spinner, or set to always to output the spinner even for non-TTY outputs.

strict-ssl

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

Whether or not to do SSL key validation when making requests to the registry via https.

tmp

•: Default: TMPDIR environment variable, or "/tmp"
•: Type: path

Where to store temporary files and folders. All temp files are deleted on success, but left behind on failure for forensic purposes.

unicode

•: Default: true
•: Type: Boolean

When set to true, npm uses unicode characters in the tree output. When false, it uses ascii characters to draw trees.

unsafe-perm

•: Default: false if running as root, true otherwise
•: Type: Boolean

Set to true to suppress the UID/GID switching when running package scripts. If set explicitly to false, then installing as a non-root user will fail.

usage

•: Default: false
•: Type: Boolean

Set to show short usage output (npm help like the -H output) instead of complete help when doing npm-help.

user

•: Default: "nobody"
•: Type: String or Number

The UID to set to when running package scripts as root.

username

•: Default: null
•: Type: String

The username on the npm registry. Set with npm adduser

userconfig

•: Default: ~/.npmrc
•: Type: path

The location of user-level configuration settings.

umask

•: Default: 022
•: Type: Octal numeric string

The "umask" value to use when setting the file creation mode on files and folders.

Folders and executables are given a mode which is 0777 masked against this value. Other files are given a mode which is 0666 masked against this value. Thus, the defaults are 0755 and 0644 respectively.

user-agent

•: Default: node/{process.version} {process.platform} {process.arch}
•: Type: String

Sets a User-Agent to the request header

version

•: Default: false
•: Type: boolean

If true, output the npm version and exit successfully.

Only relevant when specified explicitly on the command line.

versions

•: Default: false
•: Type: boolean

If true, output the npm version as well as node's process.versions hash, and exit successfully.

Only relevant when specified explicitly on the command line.

viewer

•: Default: "man" on Posix, "browser" on Windows
•: Type: path

The program to use to view help content.

Set to "browser" to view html help content in the default web browser.