Updating Your NPM Version
Updating Your NPM Version
In this tutorial, we will guide you through updating your NPM (Node Package Manager) version to ensure you're using the latest features and security patches. Keeping your development tools up to date is essential for maintaining security, improving performance, and accessing the newest features that can streamline your workflow. This tutorial was originally created in 2016, and we've included any necessary updates to keep it current.
Step 1: Check Your Current NPM Version
Before updating, it's a good idea to check which version of NPM you currently have installed. Open your terminal or command prompt and run the following command:
npm -v
This will display your current version of NPM.
Note: It's important to keep NPM updated regularly, as updates often include security patches and performance improvements.
Step 2: Update NPM Globally
To update NPM to the latest version, use the following command. You may need administrative privileges, so make sure to use sudo on Linux or MacOS, or run your terminal as an administrator on Windows.
For Linux and MacOS:
sudo npm install -g npm@latest
For Windows:
If you're on Windows, run the command without sudo:
npm install -g npm@latest
Critical Update (2024): As of recent updates, you can also use corepack to manage NPM versions more efficiently, especially when using different versions across multiple projects.
Step 3: Verify the Update
Once the update is complete, it's important to verify that the latest version has been installed. Run the following command to check your NPM version again:
npm -v
If the update was successful, you should see the latest version number displayed.
Step 4: Troubleshooting Common Issues
Sometimes, permission issues can occur when updating NPM. Here are a few common solutions:
-
Permission Errors on Linux/MacOS: If you encounter permission errors, you can use nvm (Node Version Manager) to manage your Node.js and NPM versions, which avoids the need for sudo.
- Install nvm:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash - Use nvm to install Node.js and NPM without permission issues.
- Install nvm:
-
Windows Users: Make sure to run your terminal as an administrator to avoid permission issues when installing global packages.
Step 5: Using NPM Update Notifications
To make sure you’re always using the latest version, NPM provides a feature to notify you when updates are available. You can use npm outdated -g to check which globally installed packages, including NPM itself, are out of date.
npm outdated -g
This command will list any packages that have newer versions available, including NPM.
Conclusion
Updating your NPM version is a simple but essential step in keeping your development environment secure and efficient. With the latest version, you'll benefit from improved features, security updates, and better performance. Make sure to check your NPM version regularly and update whenever new releases are available to ensure a smooth development experience.
By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can keep your tools up to date and continue building full stack applications with confidence.
Video Transcript
00:00Now that we've got everything set up and configured
00:03and ready to work with, this chapter is dedicated
00:06to NPM in it.
00:08We're gonna really get to know how to work with NPM,
00:11starting with understanding what it actually is.
00:14Throughout this chapter.
00:16We're gonna go step by step
00:17and learn how to use NPM to, first of all, we're gonna learn
00:21how to self update NPM, how to install
00:25and uninstall packages in the global and local scope.
00:29Now don't worry too much about what that means
00:31because by the end of this chapter,
00:33you're definitely gonna know what it means
00:35and know how to work with this.
00:38We're also gonna learn how to declare NPM packages
00:41with package JSO, which will enable us
00:44to create node JS applications
00:46or register our node applications with NPM.
00:51Last but not least, which one
00:53of the most important topics we're gonna learn about version
00:56controlling packages, literally learning the var synex
01:01and understand how it works.
01:03So by the end of this chapter,
01:04you're gonna have all the critical key components of knowing
01:07how to work with NPM, which is gonna super empower you
01:11as a developer when we go into know JS in
01:14the following chapter.
01:16So let's get started with the first topic.
01:19And really the first topic is what is NPM?
01:23NPM stands for?
01:24Node Package Manager
01:26and Node is for the core technology
01:28that programming language slash world,
01:30that our developer language, which is in JavaScript,
01:34that enables us to build packages
01:36and code that will work on a server.
01:38That Node package manager basically enables us to share
01:43and get content from other developers,
01:45other code syn snippets to integrate into our code.
01:48So instead of languages like PHP
01:51and other platforms that have most
01:53of the core functionalities, prebuilt, prepackaged into PHP,
01:57and then we would just use them contrary to that,
02:01the node package manager may enables you
02:04to have a very basic construct, a ba, very basic language,
02:07and then you would extend it by calling different elements,
02:11installing different elements very easily
02:13to add new features that all the developer community
02:16around the world are doing.
02:19So know it as a package manager.
02:20And when you think of a package manager,
02:22it is exactly the same way as Google Play
02:25or the Apple Store works
02:27where you install an application directly through Apple
02:31or Google, and then you could then get automatic updates
02:35or physically update different applications based on your
02:39choice without needing to go to 1,000,001 different places.
02:43Knowing that it's going through one venue, one place
02:46that is managing the repository
02:48of all the different applications.
02:50The same applies to NPM when it comes
02:53to node related content now.
02:56So it's basically a repository, as
02:58We said, for node packages,
03:00and it maintains version control.
03:02Making it easier for you to then say,
03:04I need a specific version of the application.
03:08That is, for example, when a new operating system updates
03:12for the iOS, then there's a new update to that application,
03:15but that application is not applicable,
03:17wouldn't work on an older device.
03:20So by letting you as a developer gain access
03:23to specific versions, you can make sure that you're working
03:26with a version that you know will work with your application
03:29and secure yourself from updates in the future
03:32by not updating it, for example, not updating
03:35and enabling you to keep the version
03:37that you know will work for your system.
03:39So that's really NPM.
03:41With that said, what we're gonna do in this lecture,
03:43we're gonna update our NPM version,
03:46and in the process we're gonna fix our permissions
03:48that will be broken when we're updating our NPM version.
03:53We're gonna install by the end of this lecture,
03:55the latest version of NPM.
03:57So there we go. Let's get started.
04:01The default version of NPM
04:03that is installed when you install node js
04:08NPM is not that up to date.
04:13It's up to date, but it's really relative
04:15to the latest stable version that was released of no js.
04:20But in reality, your package manager is best
04:23to be the latest version.
04:24It can be always, and once in a while you wanna make sure
04:28that you have the latest version
04:30and this lecture, that's exactly what we're gonna do.
04:33And to do that, the steps involved with
04:35that are just typing NPM install,
04:40NPM minus G.
04:42Now I wanna talk about this process here.
04:45NPM is the command that we're working with.
04:46It's our package manager.
04:48If you watch our Linux videos on the installation
04:52of node js on a Linux, you saw that we used on CentOS,
04:57a package manager that was called Yum.
05:00NPM is very similar to that.
05:02It works in similar syntax
05:04where we're basically asking from NPM to install something,
05:07what do we wanna install?
05:09Well, we wanna install NPM. Where do we wanna install it?
05:13We want to install it globally
05:16so everyone will have access to it.
05:18So no matter in what folder I'm at, I'll be able
05:21to use this latest version of NPM.
05:23This is not a version or a package
05:25that I want only stored locally.
05:27It's a package I want stored globally.
05:30In reality, I'm treating the installation of an update
05:33to NPM, like the installation of any package,
05:36as we're gonna see in the following lectures when we
05:39install packages.
05:41In this case, we wanna make sure
05:42that it's installed globally.
05:44Now, if I go ahead and I press enter, in my case,
05:47I didn't have the permission set and configured correctly.
05:51By default, when you install node js on macro PC for
05:55that matter, you might see this error.
05:58If you see this error, that means your permissions are not
06:00processed correctly, they're not configured correctly.
06:04I'm gonna go ahead and clear my view here,
06:06but what I want you to do now is type NPM config
06:12get prefix.
06:14Now the get prefix command is gonna go into our
06:17configuration file to find out
06:20where is our NPM located In this case,
06:24NPM is located in the user folder and the local folder.
06:28And that is true. If I go inside
06:30and I look here, I'll see that
06:31among other things I have installed for my local user here,
06:36for the, for users in general, really not only this user,
06:40you'll see that I have your bin, uh, I have Git,
06:42I have a lot of other things.
06:44And among those things, among those packages, the prefix
06:48before that is our n pm.
06:50So if I take a deeper look here
06:52and I actually go inside of my bin folder
06:56and I do a search inside of here,
06:58I'll see more a lot of other packages.
07:00And among those packages, I'm gonna see the node package
07:03and I'm gonna see my NPM.
07:06Now, really, NPM is the one that I'm most interested in.
07:09Now what I really want to do is I wanna go
07:13through my process letting sh making sure
07:17that I could change all the things that I really need
07:20to make sure that it's gonna work properly.
07:23Now, there's a few places where no JS works with.
07:26One is in the share folder if it exists in
07:29our case, here we go.
07:30We have a share folder.
07:32It ha it stores things inside of, excuse me,
07:37while it stores things inside of the share folder,
07:42it stores things inside of the bin folder, it store things
07:45inside of the folder lib.
07:47And in there it has its modules.
07:50So if I go inside here, I should, I'll be able to see
07:52beyond only having the things that are related
07:55to other applications.
07:57You'll see that node modules are in here as well,
08:00which is something that is used by NPM.
08:03If I go inside of the share folder, you'll see
08:06that there's other things beyond the the related things to
08:10node js and NPM.
08:13So really what I'm gonna go through this process,
08:15what I'm going to do is I'm gonna change permissions more
08:18or less in everything inside of our core bin folder.
08:21Outside of that, it's not, not only in our bin slash
08:26npm, but I actually, I want to change the whole bin folder.
08:29I want to change the whole share folder,
08:31and I wanna share the the folder of lib slash node modules.
08:36Now, if you don't wanna go through
08:37and make all of these changes, there's other ways
08:40of doing this and you could learn about how to do
08:43that in a document that I have attached to this chapter.
08:47In our case, what I'm going to do is I'm gonna go ahead
08:49and change the owners.
08:51'cause currently, by the way, if you take a look at
08:53who are the owners of these
08:54Folders, you'll see that root.
08:56Some of them are me, some of them are the Root,
08:59some of them are an admin.
09:00They're not all me.
09:01And what I really want is I wanna make sure
09:03that all the files that are associated with that are needed
09:07by NPM are mine, so I could then work with them on my own.
09:12So to be able to do that, I'm gonna go ahead
09:13and clear the the view again here,
09:15I'm gonna type your n I'm gonna type your pseudo
09:18'cause I want to access as the root,
09:20and I'm gonna change the owner of a recursively.
09:24I'm gonna change the o, the owner to who to myself.
09:27So I'm gonna type, who am I, which will make sure
09:29that it's gonna be whoever you are, whoever the user
09:32of that currently is.
09:34I'm gonna put a space and I'm gonna list out the folders
09:36that I want to have changed.
09:38In this case, the folder that I want is the folder
09:41that we got from NPM Config Get Prefix.
09:46So that's gonna make sure that I'm gonna get access to
09:48that core folder, that user local.
09:51Now I'm gonna put your slash
09:52and I'm gonna list out inside of a curly bracket,
09:56all the folders that I really want to change.
09:58So we saw, we had the lib slash node modules,
10:03there's the bin folder,
10:05and again, the bin folder is shared among a lot
10:07of different applications.
10:09And if your device is being used by many other people,
10:12you probably wouldn't wanna change it
10:13and you'd wanna look into our documentation.
10:16But in general, most Macs, at least my Mac,
10:19I'm only working myself.
10:20So it's okay that I'm gonna turn this to be completely mine.
10:23And I'm gonna go ahead and also change the share folder
10:26and close our curly bracket.
10:28So again, I just wanna walk through what I'm doing here.
10:31I'm asking pseudo, I'm asking from the root
10:33to change the owner recursively to be me
10:37of the folders that first,
10:40the folder we got from NPM Config get prefix, which is,
10:42in my case, the user slash local.
10:45And then I want to change the list of folders
10:48that in are in this curly bracket,
10:50which are our lib node modules, our bin folder,
10:53our share folder, and I'm separating them using a comma.
10:57If I go ahead and click on enter, it's gonna go
10:59through the process of changing the owner.
11:01I just have to make sure that I provide the password,
11:04my root password, which I've just done once I
11:08provided the root password.
11:09If I go ahead and I look at who, what are those files,
11:12who owns them, you're gonna see
11:14that our bin folder is now mine completely.
11:17Our share folder is mine completely.
11:20And if I go into my Lib folder, which the lib
11:23by the way is owned by some number,
11:28but I'm gonna, if I go into the Lib folder
11:29and I search for that specific folder,
11:32in our case we're looking for the node modules.
11:35And you'll see in my node modules that not the root owns it,
11:38but actually Ben Fala owns it, which is me,
11:40that this is my username awesomeness.
11:43So now that I've went through all of this process,
11:46I'm gonna clear here, and once I've done
11:48with all this process, I could go ahead
11:50and now my permissions should be set.
11:52So I'm gonna ask from NPM again
11:54to install NPM in our global folder.
11:57I'm not gonna need to use SDU or anything like that.
12:00And by the way, if you can't change those permissions,
12:03you could try and use SDU
12:04or look at other solutions that we have in the documentation
12:07that's provided with this chapter.
12:09But go ahead and even
12:10before we do that, let's see what version, so let's remember
12:13what version of NPM we have here.
12:15NPM minus V, our current version is 3.9393.
12:20And if I'm gonna go again, NPM install NPM minus G,
12:25and I'm gonna go ahead and set up the connection.
12:28It's gonna go through it searching
12:29to see if there's a newer version than 3.9 0.3.
12:34And once it goes through, connects to the web,
12:37finds the file, downloads it,
12:38and installs it, it's gonna go all this process on its own
12:41once you had the configuration set up
12:43and configured correctly.
12:45And you can see that now we updated our version of NPM
12:48to 3.95
12:50and we've upped updated Oso our whatever this is.
12:55Alright, that's it.
12:56And that wraps up our discussion about how do you update NPM
13:01and Oso, how you set up and configure NPM.
13:03So you could start doing all the installs
13:05that we're gonna do throughout this chapter and beyond.
13:08And now we've updated from 3.93 to 3.95.
13:12And I encourage you once in a while
13:14to run this command every few weeks.
13:16Just to make sure that you have the latest version
13:19of NPM in this lecture.
13:22We got to know the basic idea behind NPM
13:25and got NPM to be running
13:29and without permission issues.
13:31In the next lecture, we're gonna go ahead and install
13:34and uninstall global packages.
13:36So by the end of the next lecture, you will know
13:38what global packages are, you'll know what packages are,
13:41and you'll know what global packages are,
13:43and we'll know how to install and uninstall them.