#Npm install modules windows
Run npm install on a Windows machine that has all the native module's prerequisites installed. While some popular modules like MongoDB have optional native dependencies and work fine without them, two workarounds proved successful with almost all native modules available today: Since Azure Cloud Services rely on the node_modules folder being deployed as part of the application, any native module included as part of the installed modules should work in a cloud service as long as it was installed and compiled on a Windows development system.Īzure App Service does not support all native modules, and might fail when compiling modules with specific prerequisites. These modules are compiled at install time, usually by using Python and node-gyp. While most modules are simply plain-text JavaScript files, some modules are platform-specific binary images. This environment allows each module installed to have its own version requirements for the modules it depends on, however it can result in quite a large directory structure.ĭeploying the node_modules directory as part of your application increases the size of the deployment when compared to using a package.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json file however, it does guarantee that the versions of the modules used in production are the same as the modules used in development. Each module within the node_modules directory maintains its own directory that contains any modules that it depends on, and this behavior repeats for every module all the way down the dependency chain. When modules are installed, they are stored in the node_modules directory at the root of your application directory structure. Modules are usually installed using the npm command-line tool, however some modules (such as the http module) are provided as part of the core Node.js package. Modules are loadable JavaScript packages that provide specific functionality for your application.
#Npm install modules how to
For an example of how to configure this environment, see Azure Startup task to run npm install to avoid deploying node modulesĪzure Virtual Machines are not discussed in this article, as the deployment experience in a VM is dependent on the operating system hosted by the Virtual Machine. It is possible to enable support for installing modules using package.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json files on Cloud Services however, this configuration requires customization of the default scripts used by Cloud Service projects.
If you are already familiar with using Node.js modules, package.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json files, the following information provides a quick summary of what is discussed in this article:Īzure App Service understands package.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json files and can install modules based on entries in these files.Īzure Cloud Services expects all modules to be installed on the development environment, and the node_modules directory to be included as part of the deployment package. It provides guidance on ensuring that your application uses a specific version of a module as well as using native modules with Azure. If anyone finds a better way, sound off in the comments below.This document provides guidance on using Node.js modules with applications hosted on Azure. $errors = powershell.exe -Command "cd `"c:\path\to\dest" `n npm install" The output is sent to the host shell, and the errors are returned as a result variable. The easiest path to that is calling powershell.exe -Command. The option I’ve settled upon is calling an external process and getting all the output for the external process in the current window. bin folder as expected, however, the node_modules folder you want will be c:\path\to\dest2\node_modules\\node_modules\.bin, so you would need run this command setting the prefix to a tmp folder then copy the folder to the correct location, at the cost of extra IO. npm install -cwd "c:\path\to\dest" -prefix "c:\path\to\dest2" If you change the target directory for the -prefix flag, it creates a nested hierarchy. So it acts as if you’re doing an install to the global NPM folder. The dependencies install, but the bin links, like bash scripts and cmd files, are stored in the c:\path\to\dest instead of c:\path\to\dest\node_modules\.bin which one would expect for a local install. I’ve seen posts talking using -prefix to accomplish this, however, if I do the following on Windows: npm install -cwd "c:\path\to\dest" -prefix "c:\path\to\dest" It just feels hacky to change the directory away from root working directory for a build. My primary objective for running NPM from a different folder is the use case of using build scripts. I find that trying to run NPM install for all dependencies in a different folder than where the package.json resides,… a bit troublesome.