dwww Home | Manual pages | Find package

PACKAGE.JSON(5)               File Formats Manual              PACKAGE.JSON(5)

NAME
       package.json

Description
       This document is all you need to know about what's required in your
       package.json  file.   It must be actual JSON, not just a JavaScript ob-
       ject
       literal.

       A lot of the behavior described in this document  is  affected  by  the
       config
       settings described in config.

name
       If you plan to publish your package, the most important things in your
       package.json  are the name and version fields as they will be required.
       The
       name and version together form an identifier that is assumed to be
       completely unique.  Changes to  the  package  should  come  along  with
       changes
       to the version. If you don't plan to publish your package, the name and
       version fields are optional.

       The name is what your thing is called.

       Some rules:

        • The name must be less than or equal to 214 characters. This includes
          the
          scope for scoped packages.

        • The names of scoped packages can begin with a dot or an  underscore.
          This
          is not permitted without a scope.

        • New packages must not have uppercase letters in the name.

        • The  name  ends  up  being part of a URL, an argument on the command
          line,
          and  a  folder  name.  Therefore,  the  name   can't   contain   any
          non-URL-safe
          characters.

       Some tips:

        • Don't use the same name as a core Node module.

        • Don't  put  "js"  or "node" in the name.  It's assumed that it's js,
          since
          you're writing a package.json file, and you can specify  the  engine
          using
          the "engines" field.  (See below.)

        • The name will probably be passed as an argument to require(), so it
          should be something short, but also reasonably descriptive.

        • You  may  want to check the npm registry to see if there's something
          by
          that name already, before you get too attached to it.
          https://www.npmjs.com/

       A name can be optionally prefixed by a  scope,  e.g.  @myorg/mypackage.
       See
       scope for more detail.

version
       If you plan to publish your package, the most important things in your
       package.json  are the name and version fields as they will be required.
       The
       name and version together form an identifier that is assumed to be
       completely unique.  Changes to  the  package  should  come  along  with
       changes
       to the version. If you don't plan to publish your package, the name and
       version fields are optional.

       Version must be parseable by
       node-semver, which is bundled with
       npm as a dependency.  (npm install semver to use it yourself.)

description
       Put  a  description  in it.  It's a string.  This helps people discover
       your
       package, as it's listed in npm search.

keywords
       Put keywords in it.  It's an array of strings.  This helps people  dis-
       cover
       your package as it's listed in npm search.

homepage
       The url to the project homepage.

       Example:
         "homepage": "https://github.com/owner/project#readme"

bugs
       The  url  to your project's issue tracker and / or the email address to
       which
       issues should be reported. These are helpful for people who encounter
       issues with your package.

       It should look like this:
         {
           "url" : "https://github.com/owner/project/issues",
           "email" : "project@hostname.com"
         }

       You can specify either one or both values. If you want to provide  only
       a
       url, you can specify the value for "bugs" as a simple string instead of
       an
       object.

       If a url is provided, it will be used by the npm bugs command.

license
       You should specify a license for your package so that people  know  how
       they
       are permitted to use it, and any restrictions you're placing on it.

       If  you're  using  a  common license such as BSD-2-Clause or MIT, add a
       current
       SPDX license identifier for the license you're using, like this:
         {
           "license" : "BSD-3-Clause"
         }

       You can check the full list of SPDX license
       IDs.  Ideally you should pick one that is
       OSI approved.

       If your package is licensed under multiple common licenses, use an SPDX
       license expression syntax version 2.0
       string, like this:
         {
           "license" : "(ISC OR GPL-3.0)"
         }

       If you are using a license that hasn't been assigned  an  SPDX  identi-
       fier, or if
       you are using a custom license, use a string value like this one:
         {
           "license" : "SEE LICENSE IN <filename>"
         }

       Then include a file named <filename> at the top level of the package.

       Some  old  packages  used license objects or a "licenses" property con-
       taining
       an array of license objects:
         // Not valid metadata
         {
           "license" : {
             "type" : "ISC",
             "url" : "https://opensource.org/licenses/ISC"
           }
         }

         // Not valid metadata
         {
           "licenses" : [
             {
               "type": "MIT",
               "url": "https://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php"
             },
             {
               "type": "Apache-2.0",
               "url": "https://opensource.org/licenses/apache2.0.php"
             }
           ]
         }

       Those styles are now deprecated. Instead, use  SPDX  expressions,  like
       this:
         {
           "license": "ISC"
         }
         {
           "license": "(MIT OR Apache-2.0)"
         }

       Finally,  if you do not wish to grant others the right to use a private
       or
       unpublished package under any terms:
         {
           "license": "UNLICENSED"
         }

       Consider also setting &quot;private&quot;: true to  prevent  accidental
       publication.

people fields: author, contributors
       The "author" is one person.  "contributors" is an array of people.  A
       "person"  is  an  object  with  a "name" field and optionally "url" and
       "email",
       like this:
         {
           "name" : "Barney Rubble",
           "email" : "b@rubble.com",
           "url" : "http://barnyrubble.tumblr.com/"
         }

       Or you can shorten that all into a single string, and npm will parse it
       for
       you:
         {
           "author": "Barney Rubble <b@rubble.com> (http://barnyrubble.tumblr.com/)"
         }

       Both email and url are optional either way.

       npm also sets a top-level "maintainers" field with your npm user info.

funding
       You can specify an object containing a URL that provides up-to-date
       information about ways to help fund development of your package, or a
       string URL, or an array of these:
         {
           "funding": {
             "type" : "individual",
             "url" : "http://example.com/donate"
           },

           "funding": {
             "type" : "patreon",
             "url" : "https://www.patreon.com/my-account"
           },

           "funding": "http://example.com/donate",

           "funding": [
             {
               "type" : "individual",
               "url" : "http://example.com/donate"
             },
             "http://example.com/donateAlso",
             {
               "type" : "patreon",
               "url" : "https://www.patreon.com/my-account"
             }
           ]
         }

       Users can use the npm fund subcommand to list the funding URLs of all
       dependencies of their project, direct and indirect. A shortcut to visit
       each funding url is also available when providing the project name such
       as:
       npm fund <projectname> (when there are multiple  URLs,  the  first  one
       will
       be visited)

files
       The  optional  files  field is an array of file patterns that describes
       the
       entries to be included when your package is installed as a  dependency.
       File
       patterns follow a similar syntax to .gitignore, but reversed: including
       a
       file, directory, or glob pattern (*, **/*, and such) will make it so
       that file is included in the tarball when  it's  packed.  Omitting  the
       field
       will  make  it  default to [&quot;*&quot;], which means it will include
       all files.

       Some special files and directories are also included  or  excluded  re-
       gardless
       of whether they exist in the files array (see below).

       You  can  also provide a .npmignore file in the root of your package or
       in
       subdirectories, which will keep files from being included. At the  root
       of
       your package it will not override the "files" field, but in subdirecto-
       ries
       it will. The .npmignore file works just like a .gitignore. If there is
       a .gitignore file, and .npmignore is missing, .gitignore's contents
       will be used instead.

       Files included with the "package.json#files" field cannot be excluded
       through .npmignore or .gitignore.

       Certain files are always included, regardless of settings:

        • package.jsonREADMELICENSE / LICENCE

        • The file in the "main" field

       README & LICENSE can have any case and extension.

       Conversely, some files are always ignored:

        • .gitCVS.svn.hg.lock-wscript.wafpickle-N.*.swp.DS_Store._*npm-debug.log.npmrcnode_modulesconfig.gypi*.origpackage-lock.json (use
          npm-shrinkwrap.json if you wish
          it to be published)

main
       The main field is a module ID that is the primary entry point to your
       program.  That is, if your package is named foo, and  a  user  installs
       it,
       and then does require(&quot;foo&quot;), then your main module's exports
       object will
       be returned.

       This should be a module relative to the root of your package folder.

       For most modules, it makes the most sense to have a main script and of-
       ten
       not much else.

       If  main  is  not  set  it  defaults  to index.js in the package's root
       folder.

browser
       If your module is meant to be used client-side the browser field should
       be
       used  instead  of the main field. This is helpful to hint users that it
       might
       rely on primitives that aren't available in Node.js modules. (e.g.
       window)

bin
       A lot of packages have one or more executable files that they'd like to
       install into the PATH. npm makes this pretty easy  (in  fact,  it  uses
       this
       feature to install the "npm" executable.)

       To use this, supply a bin field in your package.json which is a map of
       command  name  to local file name. When this package is installed glob-
       ally,
       that file will be either linked inside the global bins directory or
       a cmd (Windows Command File) will be created which executes the  speci-
       fied
       file  in  the  bin field, so it is available to run by name or name.cmd
       (on
       Windows PowerShell). When this package is installed as a dependency  in
       another
       package,  the  file  will  be linked where it will be available to that
       package
       either directly by npm exec or by name in other scripts  when  invoking
       them
       via npm run-script.

       For example, myapp could have this:
         {
           "bin": {
             "myapp": "./cli.js"
           }
         }

       So, when you install myapp, in case of unix-like OS it'll create a sym-
       link
       from the cli.js script to /usr/local/bin/myapp and in case  of  windows
       it
       will  create  a  cmd  file usually at C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Roam-
       ing\npm\myapp.cmd
       which runs the cli.js script.

       If you have a single executable, and its name should be the name of the
       package, then you can just supply it as a string.  For example:
         {
           "name": "my-program",
           "version": "1.2.5",
           "bin": "./path/to/program"
         }

       would be the same as this:
         {
           "name": "my-program",
           "version": "1.2.5",
           "bin": {
             "my-program": "./path/to/program"
           }
         }

       Please make sure that your file(s) referenced in bin starts with
       #!/usr/bin/env node, otherwise the scripts are started without the node
       executable!

       Note that you can also set the executable files using directories.bin

       See folders for more info on
       executables.

man
       Specify either a single file or an array of filenames to put  in  place
       for
       the man program to find.

       If  only a single file is provided, then it's installed such that it is
       the
       result from man <pkgname>, regardless of its actual filename.  For
       example:
         {
           "name": "foo",
           "version": "1.2.3",
           "description": "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos",
           "main": "foo.js",
           "man": "./man/doc.1"
         }

       would link the ./man/doc.1 file in such that it is the target  for  man
       foo

       If  the  filename  doesn't  start with the package name, then it's pre-
       fixed.
       So, this:
         {
           "name": "foo",
           "version": "1.2.3",
           "description": "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos",
           "main": "foo.js",
           "man": [
             "./man/foo.1",
             "./man/bar.1"
           ]
         }

       will create files to do man foo and man foo-bar.

       Man files must end with a number, and optionally a .gz suffix  if  they
       are
       compressed.   The  number  dictates  which  man section the file is in-
       stalled
       into.
         {
           "name": "foo",
           "version": "1.2.3",
           "description": "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos",
           "main": "foo.js",
           "man": [
             "./man/foo.1",
             "./man/foo.2"
           ]
         }

       will create entries for man foo and man 2 foo

directories
       The CommonJS Packages spec
       details a few ways that you can indicate the structure of your package
       using a directories object. If you look at npm's
       package.json, you'll see that it
       has directories for doc, lib, and man.

       In the future, this information may be used in other creative ways.

   directories.bin
       If you specify a bin directory in directories.bin, all the files in
       that folder will be added.

       Because of the way the bin directive works, specifying both a bin path
       and setting directories.bin is an error. If you want to specify
       individual files, use bin, and for all the files in an existing bin
       directory, use directories.bin.

   directories.man
       A folder that is full of man pages.  Sugar to generate a "man" array by
       walking the folder.

repository
       Specify the place where your code lives. This is helpful for people who
       want to contribute.  If the git repo is on GitHub, then the npm docs
       command will be able to find you.

       Do it like this:
         {
           "repository": {
             "type": "git",
             "url": "https://github.com/npm/cli.git"
           }
         }

       The URL should be a publicly available (perhaps read-only) url that can
       be
       handed  directly  to a VCS program without any modification.  It should
       not
       be a url to an html project page that you put in  your  browser.   It's
       for
       computers.

       For  GitHub, GitHub gist, Bitbucket, or GitLab repositories you can use
       the
       same shortcut syntax you use for npm install:
         {
           "repository": "npm/npm",

           "repository": "github:user/repo",

           "repository": "gist:11081aaa281",

           "repository": "bitbucket:user/repo",

           "repository": "gitlab:user/repo"
         }

       If the package.json for your package is not in the root directory (for
       example if it is part of a monorepo), you can specify the directory in
       which it lives:
         {
           "repository": {
             "type": "git",
             "url": "https://github.com/facebook/react.git",
             "directory": "packages/react-dom"
           }
         }

scripts
       The "scripts" property is a dictionary containing script commands  that
       are
       run at various times in the lifecycle of your package.  The key is the
       lifecycle event, and the value is the command to run at that point.

       See scripts to find out more about writing package
       scripts.

config
       A "config" object can be used to set configuration parameters used in
       package scripts that persist across upgrades.  For instance, if a pack-
       age
       had the following:
         {
           "name": "foo",
           "config": {
             "port": "8080"
           }
         }

       It could also have a "start" command that referenced the
       npm_package_config_port environment variable.

dependencies
       Dependencies are specified in a simple object that maps a package  name
       to a
       version range. The version range is a string which has one or more
       space-separated  descriptors.  Dependencies can also be identified with
       a
       tarball or git URL.

       Please do not put test harnesses or transpilers or other "development"
       time tools in your dependencies object.  See devDependencies, below.

       See semver for more details about specifying version ranges.

        • version Must match version exactly

        • >version Must be greater than version>=version etc

        • <version<=version~version "Approximately equivalent to version"  See
          semver

        • ^version "Compatible with version"  See semver

        • 1.2.x 1.2.0, 1.2.1, etc., but not 1.3.0

        • http://... See 'URLs as Dependencies' below

        • * Matches any version

        • &quot;&quot; (just an empty string) Same as *version1 - version2 Same as >=version1 <=version2.

        • range1 || range2 Passes if either range1 or range2 are satisfied.

        • git... See 'Git URLs as Dependencies' below

        • user/repo See 'GitHub URLs' below

        • tag A specific version tagged and published as tag  See npm dist-tagpath/path/path See Local Paths below

       For example, these are all valid:
         {
           "dependencies": {
             "foo": "1.0.0 - 2.9999.9999",
             "bar": ">=1.0.2 <2.1.2",
             "baz": ">1.0.2 <=2.3.4",
             "boo": "2.0.1",
             "qux": "<1.0.0 || >=2.3.1 <2.4.5 || >=2.5.2 <3.0.0",
             "asd": "http://asdf.com/asdf.tar.gz",
             "til": "~1.2",
             "elf": "~1.2.3",
             "two": "2.x",
             "thr": "3.3.x",
             "lat": "latest",
             "dyl": "file:../dyl"
           }
         }

   URLs as Dependencies
       You may specify a tarball URL in place of a version range.

       This tarball will be downloaded and installed locally to  your  package
       at
       install time.

   Git URLs as Dependencies
       Git urls are of the form:
         <protocol>://[<user>[:<password>]@]<hostname>[:<port>][:][/]<path>[#<commit-ish> | #semver:<semver>]

       <protocol> is one of git, git+ssh, git+http, git+https, or
       git+file.

       If #<commit-ish> is provided, it will be used to clone exactly that
       commit. If the commit-ish has the format #semver:<semver>, <semver> can
       be  any  valid semver range or exact version, and npm will look for any
       tags
       or refs matching that range in the remote repository, much as it  would
       for
       a registry dependency. If neither #<commit-ish> or #semver:<semver> is
       specified, then the default branch is used.

       Examples:
         git+ssh://git@github.com:npm/cli.git#v1.0.27
         git+ssh://git@github.com:npm/cli#semver:^5.0
         git+https://isaacs@github.com/npm/cli.git
         git://github.com/npm/cli.git#v1.0.27

       When  installing  from a git repository, the presence of certain fields
       in the
       package.json will cause npm to believe it needs to perform a build.  To
       do so
       your  repository  will be cloned into a temporary directory, all of its
       deps
       installed, relevant scripts run, and the resulting directory packed and
       installed.

       This flow will occur if your git dependency uses workspaces, or if  any
       of the
       following scripts are present:

        • buildprepareprepackpreinstallinstallpostinstall

       If  your  git  repository includes pre-built artifacts, you will likely
       want to
       make sure that none of the above scripts are defined,  or  your  depen-
       dency
       will be rebuilt for every installation.

   GitHub URLs
       As of version 1.1.65, you can refer to GitHub urls as just "foo":
       "user/foo-project".  Just as with git URLs, a commit-ish suffix can be
       included.  For example:
         {
           "name": "foo",
           "version": "0.0.0",
           "dependencies": {
             "express": "expressjs/express",
             "mocha": "mochajs/mocha#4727d357ea",
             "module": "user/repo#feature\/branch"
           }
         }

   Local Paths
       As of version 2.0.0 you can provide a path to a local directory that
       contains  a  package.  Local paths can be saved using npm install -S or
       npm install --save, using any of these forms:
         ../foo/bar
         ~/foo/bar
         ./foo/bar
         /foo/bar

       in which case they will be normalized to a relative path and  added  to
       your
       package.json. For example:
         {
           "name": "baz",
           "dependencies": {
             "bar": "file:../foo/bar"
           }
         }

       This  feature  is  helpful  for  local offline development and creating
       tests
       that require npm installing where you don't want  to  hit  an  external
       server,
       but should not be used when publishing packages to the public registry.

       note: Packages linked by local path will not have their own
       dependencies installed when npm install is ran in this case.  You must
       run npm install from inside the local path itself.

devDependencies
       If someone is planning on downloading and using your module in their
       program,  then  they  probably don't want or need to download and build
       the
       external test or documentation framework that you use.

       In this case, it's best to map these additional items in a
       devDependencies object.

       These things will be installed when doing npm link or npm install from
       the root of a package, and can be managed like any other npm configura-
       tion
       param.  See config for more on the topic.

       For build steps that are not platform-specific, such as compiling
       CoffeeScript  or  other languages to JavaScript, use the prepare script
       to
       do this, and make the required package a devDependency.

       For example:
         {
           "name": "ethopia-waza",
           "description": "a delightfully fruity coffee varietal",
           "version": "1.2.3",
           "devDependencies": {
             "coffee-script": "~1.6.3"
           },
           "scripts": {
             "prepare": "coffee -o lib/ -c src/waza.coffee"
           },
           "main": "lib/waza.js"
         }

       The prepare script will be run before publishing, so that users can
       consume the functionality without requiring them to  compile  it  them-
       selves.
       In dev mode (ie, locally running npm install), it'll run this script as
       well, so that you can test it easily.

peerDependencies
       In  some  cases,  you want to express the compatibility of your package
       with a
       host tool or library, while not necessarily doing  a  require  of  this
       host.
       This is usually referred to as a plugin. Notably, your module may be
       exposing a specific interface, expected and specified by the host
       documentation.

       For example:
         {
           "name": "tea-latte",
           "version": "1.3.5",
           "peerDependencies": {
             "tea": "2.x"
           }
         }

       This ensures your package tea-latte can be installed along with the
       second  major  version  of  the  host  package  tea  only.  npm install
       tea-latte could possibly yield the following dependency graph:
         ├── tea-latte@1.3.5
         └── tea@2.2.0

       In npm versions 3 through 6, peerDependencies were not automatically
       installed, and would raise a warning if an invalid version of the peer
       dependency was found in the tree.  As of npm v7, peerDependencies are
       installed by default.

       Trying to install another plugin with  a  conflicting  requirement  may
       cause
       an  error  if  the  tree cannot be resolved correctly. For this reason,
       make
       sure your plugin requirement is as broad as possible, and not  to  lock
       it
       down to specific patch versions.

       Assuming the host complies with semver, only changes
       in  the  host  package's major version will break your plugin. Thus, if
       you've
       worked with every 1.x version of the host package, use &quot;^1.0&quot;
       or &quot;1.x&quot;
       to express this. If you depend on features introduced in 1.5.2, use
       &quot;^1.5.2&quot;.

peerDependenciesMeta
       When a user installs your package, npm will emit warnings if packages
       specified in peerDependencies are not already installed. The
       peerDependenciesMeta  field  serves  to provide npm more information on
       how
       your peer dependencies are to be used. Specifically, it allows peer
       dependencies to be marked as optional.

       For example:
         {
           "name": "tea-latte",
           "version": "1.3.5",
           "peerDependencies": {
             "tea": "2.x",
             "soy-milk": "1.2"
           },
           "peerDependenciesMeta": {
             "soy-milk": {
               "optional": true
             }
           }
         }

       Marking a peer dependency as optional ensures npm will not emit a warn-
       ing
       if  the  soy-milk package is not installed on the host. This allows you
       to
       integrate and interact with a variety of host packages without  requir-
       ing
       all of them to be installed.

bundleDependencies
       This  defines  an array of package names that will be bundled when pub-
       lishing
       the package.

       In cases where you need to preserve npm packages locally or have them
       available through a single file download, you can bundle  the  packages
       in a
       tarball file by specifying the package names in the bundleDependencies
       array and executing npm pack.

       For example:

       If we define a package.json like this:
         {
           "name": "awesome-web-framework",
           "version": "1.0.0",
           "bundleDependencies": [
             "renderized",
             "super-streams"
           ]
         }

       we can obtain awesome-web-framework-1.0.0.tgz file by running npm pack.
       This file contains the dependencies renderized and super-streams which
       can  be  installed  in  a  new  project  by  executing npm install awe-
       some-web-framework-1.0.0.tgz.  Note that the package names do not
       include any versions, as that information is specified in dependencies.

       If this is spelled &quot;bundledDependencies&quot;, then that  is  also
       honored.

       Alternatively, &quot;bundleDependencies&quot; can be defined as a bool-
       ean value. A
       value of true will bundle all dependencies, a value of false will  bun-
       dle
       none.

optionalDependencies
       If  a  dependency  can be used, but you would like npm to proceed if it
       cannot
       be found or fails to install, then you may put it in the
       optionalDependencies object.  This is a map of package name to  version
       or
       url, just like the dependencies object.  The difference is that build
       failures  do  not  cause  installation  to  fail.   Running npm install
       --omit=optional will prevent these dependencies from being installed.

       It is still your program's responsibility to handle the lack of the
       dependency.  For example, something like this:
         try {
           var foo = require('foo')
           var fooVersion = require('foo/package.json').version
         } catch (er) {
           foo = null
         }
         if ( notGoodFooVersion(fooVersion) ) {
           foo = null
         }

         // .. then later in your program ..

         if (foo) {
           foo.doFooThings()
         }

       Entries in optionalDependencies will override entries of the same  name
       in
       dependencies, so it's usually best to only put in one place.

overrides
       If  you need to make specific changes to dependencies of your dependen-
       cies, for
       example replacing the version of a dependency with a known security is-
       sue,
       replacing  an  existing dependency with a fork, or making sure that the
       same
       version of a package is used everywhere, then you may add an override.

       Overrides provide a way to replace a package in  your  dependency  tree
       with
       another  version,  or  another  package  entirely. These changes can be
       scoped as
       specific or as vague as desired.

       To make sure the package foo is always installed as  version  1.0.0  no
       matter
       what version your dependencies rely on:
         {
           "overrides": {
             "foo": "1.0.0"
           }
         }

       The above is a short hand notation, the full object form can be used to
       allow
       overriding a package itself as well as a child  of  the  package.  This
       will cause
       foo to always be 1.0.0 while also making bar at any depth beyond foo
       also 1.0.0:
         {
           "overrides": {
             "foo": {
               ".": "1.0.0",
               "bar": "1.0.0"
             }
           }
         }

       To  only  override foo to be 1.0.0 when it's a child (or grandchild, or
       great
       grandchild, etc) of the package bar:
         {
           "overrides": {
             "bar": {
               "foo": "1.0.0"
             }
           }
         }

       Keys can be nested to any arbitrary length. To override foo  only  when
       it's a
       child of bar and only when bar is a child of baz:
         {
           "overrides": {
             "baz": {
               "bar": {
                 "foo": "1.0.0"
               }
             }
           }
         }

       The  key  of  an  override can also include a version, or range of ver-
       sions.
       To override foo to 1.0.0, but only when it's a child of bar@2.0.0:
         {
           "overrides": {
             "bar@2.0.0": {
               "foo": "1.0.0"
             }
           }
         }

       You may not set an override for a package that you directly  depend  on
       unless
       both  the dependency and the override itself share the exact same spec.
       To make
       this limitation easier to deal with, overrides may also be defined as a
       reference to a spec for a direct dependency by prefixing  the  name  of
       the
       package you wish the version to match with a $.
         {
           "dependencies": {
             "foo": "^1.0.0"
           },
           "overrides": {
             // BAD, will throw an EOVERRIDE error
             // "foo": "^2.0.0"
             // GOOD, specs match so override is allowed
             // "foo": "^1.0.0"
             // BEST, the override is defined as a reference to the dependency
             "foo": "$foo",
             // the referenced package does not need to match the overridden one
             "bar": "$foo"
           }
         }

engines
       You can specify the version of node that your stuff works on:
         {
           "engines": {
             "node": ">=0.10.3 <15"
           }
         }

       And,  like  with  dependencies, if you don't specify the version (or if
       you
       specify "*" as the version), then any version of node will do.

       You can also use the "engines" field to specify which versions  of  npm
       are
       capable of properly installing your program.  For example:
         {
           "engines": {
             "npm": "~1.0.20"
           }
         }

       Unless the user has set the
       engine-strict config flag, this field is
       advisory  only  and will only produce warnings when your package is in-
       stalled as a
       dependency.

os
       You can specify which operating systems your
       module will run on:
         {
           "os": [
             "darwin",
             "linux"
           ]
         }

       You can also block instead of allowing operating systems, just  prepend
       the
       blocked os with a '!':
         {
           "os": [
             "!win32"
           ]
         }

       The host operating system is determined by process.platform

       It is allowed to both block and allow an item, although there isn't any
       good reason to do this.

cpu
       If your code only runs on certain cpu architectures,
       you can specify which ones.
         {
           "cpu": [
             "x64",
             "ia32"
           ]
         }

       Like the os option, you can also block architectures:
         {
           "cpu": [
             "!arm",
             "!mips"
           ]
         }

       The host architecture is determined by process.arch

private
       If  you  set  &quot;private&quot;:  true in your package.json, then npm
       will refuse to
       publish it.

       This is a way to prevent accidental publication  of  private  reposito-
       ries.
       If you would like to ensure that a given package is only ever published
       to
       a specific registry (for example, an internal registry), then use the
       publishConfig dictionary described below to override the registry
       config param at publish-time.

publishConfig
       This is a set of config values that will be used at publish-time. It's
       especially handy if you want to set the tag,  registry  or  access,  so
       that
       you  can  ensure that a given package is not tagged with "latest", pub-
       lished
       to the global public registry or that a scoped module is private by
       default.

       See config to see the list of config options that
       can be overridden.

workspaces
       The optional workspaces field is an array of  file  patterns  that  de-
       scribes
       locations  within  the local file system that the install client should
       look
       up to find each workspace that needs to be
       symlinked to the top level node_modules folder.

       It can describe either the direct paths of the folders to be used as
       workspaces or it can define globs that will resolve to these same fold-
       ers.

       In the following example, all folders located inside the folder
       ./packages will be treated as workspaces as long as they have valid
       package.json files inside them:
         {
           "name": "workspace-example",
           "workspaces": [
             "./packages/*"
           ]
         }

       See workspaces for more examples.

DEFAULT VALUES
       npm will default some values based on package contents.

        • &quot;scripts&quot;: {&quot;start&quot;: &quot;node server.js&quot;}

        If  there  is  a  server.js file in the root of your package, then npm
        will
        default the start command to node server.js.

        • &quot;scripts&quot;:{&quot;install&quot;:     &quot;node-gyp     re-
          build&quot;}

        If  there  is  a  binding.gyp file in the root of your package and you
        have
        not defined an install or preinstall script, npm will default the
        install command to compile using node-gyp.

        • &quot;contributors&quot;: [...]

        If there is an AUTHORS file in the root  of  your  package,  npm  will
        treat
        each line as a Name <email> (url) format, where email and url are
        optional.  Lines which start with a # or are blank, will be ignored.

SEE ALSO
        • semver

        • workspaces

        • npm init

        • npm version

        • npm config

        • npm help

        • npm install

        • npm publish

        • npm uninstall

9.2.0                            December 2022                 PACKAGE.JSON(5)

Generated by dwww version 1.15 on Sat Jun 29 02:04:26 CEST 2024.