How do I do a clean install (delete node_modules and install) with npm?

Question

Is there a way to get npm to unbuild all the modules under node_modules? Something like npm rebuild that removes all build artifacts but doesn't rebuild them?

Thought you'd never ask. I've been checking my node_modules directory into git as recommended in http://www.mikealrogers.com/posts/nodemodules-in-git.html. When I add a new module or update a current one, I end up with build artifacts in git that shouldn't be there and have to clean them up. I was thinking if I could clean them first the process would go a little more smoothly. — Dave Causey, Jul 05 '12 at 20:24
One quick note: now that NPM supports `shrinkwrap` (see http://npmjs.org/doc/shrinkwrap.html), you can lock the versions of ALL your dependencies (instead of just the top level ones). — Michelle Tilley, Jul 05 '12 at 22:39
Thanks for `shrinkwrap`, this would help me solving some issues ! — Adrien Schuler, Jul 06 '12 at 10:32
@BrandonTilley That's an improvement. However, you're still at the mercy of the online availability of npm. Perhaps a better solution would something like **npmbox** or **Sinopia**. — VitalyB, Apr 20 '14 at 15:42
Not having this feature sucks for cross platform development as well. We develop on Mac and run CI on Linux, and need to remove the node_modules directory and completely re-install each time we do a build on Linux, which wastes a ton of time. — JBCP, Aug 15 '14 at 16:45
@JBCP you're doing it wrong. What you should be doing is installing modules in `packages.json` (using `npm --save`) and putting the `node_modules` directory in `.gitignore` (if using **git**). CI should not pull your node_modules, but execute `npm install`. Finally, if downloading from npm registry takes too long, use something like [sinopia](https://www.npmjs.com/package/sinopia) to cache it. — Bojan Markovic, Jul 01 '15 at 07:28
@BojanMarkovic - You are correct, this is how our projects are setup now. My comment above was from about a year ago. There are (were) a few projects that recommended committing node_modules into Git, but that is definitely not correct. — JBCP, Jul 02 '15 at 16:52

score 201 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 06 '12 at 10:04

201

You can just delete the node_module directory

rm -rf node_modules/

answered Jul 06 '12 at 10:04

Charles

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This would remove the source of the node_modules as well as the compiled output, so doesn't answer the question. – theGecko Dec 18 '12 at 20:42
If you have dependencies linked with npm link it might as well delete these modules source in it's source directory which can be quite painful... – cschuff Jun 07 '16 at 11:40
I actually like this. Sometimes all you need is to remove the node_modules and reinstall them – Kermit_ice_tea Nov 20 '16 at 05:53
@Kermit_ice_tea I agree with you. There's that many upvotes for a reason. – Mukus Nov 29 '16 at 04:42
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I added this to my `package.json`: `"clean": "rm -rf node_modules", "reinstall": "npm run clean && npm install", "rebuild": "npm run clean && npm install && npm run build",`. Seems to work well. – Lucas Mar 21 '17 at 14:45
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For windows> rd node_modules /s – Ishara Samantha Jul 09 '17 at 03:23
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@Lucas you should post this an an answer as it's the most suitable one – Joseph Mar 30 '18 at 14:36
@JosephSerido Done, posted as answer below. – Lucas Mar 31 '18 at 15:23
rm -rf node_modules/ && npm install – egzonmustafa May 06 '20 at 18:54
`rm .\node_modules -r -fo` for those who happen to be using Windows and PS – Kipr Nov 01 '21 at 07:48

score 164 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 24 '20 at 21:40

164

There is actually special command for this job

npm ci

It will delete node_modules directory and will install packages with respect your package-lock.json file

More info: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/ci.html

answered Jul 24 '20 at 21:40

FDisk

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Actually if you working with other team members and they updated some dependencies you should always do `npm ci` and not just `npm i`. The main reason that `npm i` also updates the lock file and this is probably that you don't want todo. – FDisk Oct 22 '20 at 06:18
The OP didn't specify that they were building a fresh project, so just be careful with this when you are the one doing the updating of dependencies as the only way to update the package-lock file would be to run `npm i`. Its a little misleading because it's called "clean install" but thats not necessarily what it does. Would be better named like rebase or something. If you rely on your project version to be in package.json as well, package-lock doesn't get updated either until you do an `npm i`, though thats not as big of a deal. – Kris Boyd Aug 17 '23 at 16:34

score 95 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 15 '19 at 02:37

95

I added this to my package.json:

"build": "npm build",
"clean": "rm -rf node_modules", 
"reinstall": "npm run clean && npm install", 
"rebuild": "npm run clean && npm install && npm run build",

Seems to work well.

edited Aug 15 '19 at 02:37

AdanCabanas

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answered Mar 31 '18 at 15:22

Lucas

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`clean` has to be defined in the package.json ! – Ciasto piekarz Dec 29 '18 at 09:27
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@Ciastopiekarz ? That's what my answer says above? – Lucas Jan 20 '19 at 02:35
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use 'rm -rf node_modules' in case linux based machine, incase of windows 'rmdir /s /q node_modules' – Mohamed.Abdo May 29 '20 at 11:13
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To use these you can't call "npm clean" since clean isn't one of the accepted names on npm. You need to do "npm run clean". – PCoelho Jul 28 '20 at 16:58
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Note that your `reinstall` is now built-in command: `npm ci` – Silviu Burcea Nov 20 '20 at 15:29
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`npm ci` does not simply delete and reinstall all modules; it is mainly meant for deploy envs, and doesnt modify the package-lock. – leumasme Jun 05 '21 at 20:22

jeckep · Answer 4 · 2019-11-06T17:49:03.727

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Try https://github.com/voidcosmos/npkill

npx npkill

it will find all node_modules and let you remove them.

edited Nov 06 '19 at 17:49

answered Nov 06 '19 at 17:43

jeckep

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thank you for your answer. out of curiosity, could you share how did you do the animation? :) – lww Oct 25 '21 at 14:08
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@lww https://github.com/vvo/gifify – jeckep Oct 26 '21 at 17:49

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 19 '12 at 17:00

You can take advantage of the 'npm cache' command which downloads the package tarball and unpacks it into the npm cache directory.

The source can then be copied in.

Using ideas gleaned from https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/npm-/mwLuZZkHkfU I came up with the following node script. No warranties, YMMV, etcetera.

var fs = require('fs'),
path = require('path'),
exec = require('child_process').exec,
util = require('util');

var packageFileName = 'package.json';
var modulesDirName = 'node_modules';
var cacheDirectory = process.cwd();
var npmCacheAddMask = 'npm cache add %s@%s; echo %s';
var sourceDirMask = '%s/%s/%s/package';
var targetDirMask = '%s/node_modules/%s';

function deleteFolder(folder) {
    if (fs.existsSync(folder)) {
        var files = fs.readdirSync(folder);
        files.forEach(function(file) {
            file = folder + "/" + file;
            if (fs.lstatSync(file).isDirectory()) {
                deleteFolder(file);
            } else {
                fs.unlinkSync(file);
            }
        });
        fs.rmdirSync(folder);
    }
}

function downloadSource(folder) {
    var packageFile = path.join(folder, packageFileName);
    if (fs.existsSync(packageFile)) {
        var data = fs.readFileSync(packageFile);
        var package = JSON.parse(data);

        function getVersion(data) {
            var version = data.match(/-([^-]+)\.tgz/);
            return version[1];
        }

        var callback = function(error, stdout, stderr) {
            var dependency = stdout.trim();
            var version = getVersion(stderr);
            var sourceDir = util.format(sourceDirMask, cacheDirectory, dependency, version);
            var targetDir = util.format(targetDirMask, folder, dependency);
            var modulesDir = folder + '/' + modulesDirName;

            if (!fs.existsSync(modulesDir)) {
                fs.mkdirSync(modulesDir);
            }

            fs.renameSync(sourceDir, targetDir);
            deleteFolder(cacheDirectory + '/' + dependency);
            downloadSource(targetDir);
        };

        for (dependency in package.dependencies) {
            var version = package.dependencies[dependency];
            exec(util.format(npmCacheAddMask, dependency, version, dependency), callback);
        }
    }
}

if (!fs.existsSync(path.join(process.cwd(), packageFileName))) {
    console.log(util.format("Unable to find file '%s'.", packageFileName));
    process.exit();
}

deleteFolder(path.join(process.cwd(), modulesDirName));
process.env.npm_config_cache = cacheDirectory;
downloadSource(process.cwd());

I find it very strange that such a basic functionality, that is actually recommended by npm, requires a hack to achieve. What does everyone else do? Just ignore the recommendation and use `npm install`? — VitalyB, Apr 20 '14 at 08:47

score 7 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 16 '22 at 22:18

npm ci works for this scenario, but only when your package.json and package-lock.json are in sync, which might not always be the case if you have been working on either one to resolve conflicts quickly or are updating on the directory level by removing directories/symbolic links. A comprehensive answer to the question would be this..

Edit the package.json with what ever you want and remove what you dont need.
Generate the package-lock.json like this, npm install --package-lock-only
Run npm ci. This should remove all artifacts and shouldn't rebuild them.

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 12 '15 at 20:22

6

In a word no.

In two, not yet.

There is, however, an open issue for a --no-build flag to npm install to perform an installation without building, which could be used to do what you're asking.

See this open issue.

answered Apr 12 '15 at 20:22

qubyte

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score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 26 '19 at 09:55

5

For windows environment:

"scripts": {
    "clean": "rmdir /s /q node_modules",
    ...
}

answered Feb 26 '19 at 09:55

Daniel De León

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score 5 · Answer 9 · edited Jul 08 '19 at 10:52

5

I have added few lines inside package.json:

"scripts": {
  ...
  "clean": "rmdir /s /q node_modules",
  "reinstall": "npm run clean && npm install",
  "rebuild": "npm run clean && npm install && rmdir /s /q dist && npm run build --prod",
  ...
}

If you want to clean only you can use this rimraf node_modules.

edited Jul 08 '19 at 10:52

404

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answered Jul 08 '19 at 08:44

Amitesh Singh

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For Mac or Linux users: `"clean": "rm -rf node_modules",` – claudius Jun 19 '23 at 13:02

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 15 '22 at 13:35

`npm ci`

As mentioned by FDisk You can use npm ci to remove node modules folder and re-install npm packages from scratch.

`npm prune`

Alternatively, you can also use npm prune to remove extraneous packages installed inside your node_modules folder that aren't defined inside the package.json

References:

MKS · Answer 11 · 2023-02-13T17:47:47.007

1

I have done this in my package.json

"scripts": {
"clean": "rm -rf ./node_modules package-lock.json .cache dist && npm i",
}

edited Feb 13 '23 at 17:47

answered Feb 13 '23 at 17:43

MKS

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it is better to use `rm -r` using the `f` parameter is not recommended – Lars Vonk Jun 02 '23 at 12:44

How do I do a clean install (delete node_modules and install) with npm?

11 Answers11

`npm ci`

`npm prune`

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