How to update npm package from local folder

Question

I cloned some npm package from github and put the package in a local folder, for example.

c:\git\package 

I used "npm install -g" to install the package, which works very well.

 npm install -gc:\git\package 

However, when I made some change in the package code, for example. checked some branch. I could not use "npm update" to update the installed package. I tried:

 npm update -g 

and

 npm update -g packagename 

or

 npm update -g folderpath 

None of them worked. I have to use "npm install" to reinstall it for the update, which takes time to reinstall all the dependencies.

Why does npm only support installation from a folder, but not updating from a folder? If he supports, what should I do? Thanks.

Answer 1

Instead of npm install from the local directory, try npm link , which creates a globally installed symbolic link to the directory.

As stated in the docs , this is a two-step process:

• In the package directory:

   $ npm link 

  This creates a symlink to the current folder in the npm global installation directory.

• Somewhere else where you want to use the module:

   $ npm link <pkgname> 

  This will create a symlink in your node_modules/ folder for global installation.