How to tell if an npm package was installed globally or locally

Question

I am installing Grunt, Node.js, npm, Bower, and grunt-cli on Windows 7.

The instructions say I should run the install commands with the -g flag for global.

How can I check if I used the -g flag when I installed? It will take a lot of time to uninstall them and reinstall.

score 310 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 08 '16 at 05:44

310

Use the list command with the -g flag to see all packages that are installed globally:

npm list -g

To check if a specific package is installed globally, you can provide the name of package (grunt in this case) as seen below:

npm list -g grunt

Or you can use grep to filter on package names:

npm list -g | grep grunt

Source: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/ls

edited Jun 08 '16 at 05:44

yzorg

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answered Sep 29 '14 at 16:16

Muntaser Ahmed

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For a boolean "installed or not?" check, try using `--depth`. For example: `npm list --depth 1 --global csats-mturk > /dev/null 2>&1`.[Here's a more detailed example](https://gitlab.com/snippets/3883). – Adam Monsen Mar 19 '15 at 23:20
2

@AdamMonsen , I was looking for _top level_ installation of tern. I used `npm list --depth 0 --global tern` to check if tern was installed globally as if `npm install -g tern` – wadkar Mar 16 '16 at 13:47
`grep` seems like a fairly reliable solution given the comments about npm exiting with an error due to unmet dependencies – myol Mar 19 '18 at 00:31

score 43 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 05 '22 at 00:56

43

npm list --depth 1 --global packagename > /dev/null 2>&1

You can then check the exit status to see if it's installed or not. Thanks Adam Monsen.

edited Aug 05 '22 at 00:56

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 03 '15 at 14:47

Flimm

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thanks for `--depth 1`! that's what I was looking for. Actually I'm using now `npm list --depth 0 -g` – revelt Jul 28 '16 at 09:13
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For some reason `$?` always returns `1` for me, even if the package IS installed or NOT installed. – Katie Oct 05 '16 at 18:41
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WARNING: npm will always exit with an error if any of your packages have unmet dependencies, **even if the package is installed**. @Kayvar this is why npm is returning 1 for you. – Codebling Oct 10 '16 at 20:23
There is a warning (to [standard error](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_streams#Standard_error_(stderr))): *"npm WARN config global `--global`, `--local` are deprecated. Use `--location=global` instead."* – Peter Mortensen Aug 05 '22 at 00:29

score 25 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 05 '22 at 00:55

To check if a specific package is installed globally, execute:

npm list -g [package-name]

Let's take Grunt as an example. If it is installed globally, you should see something like this:

npm list -g grunt

Output:

C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\npm
└── grunt@0.4.5

If it is not installed globally, you should see something like this

npm list -g grunt

Output:

C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\npm
└── (empty)

To check if a specific package is installed locally you can execute the same commands as above, but without the -g parameter.

Source: How to check if npm package was installed globally or locally.

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 23 '18 at 14:51

10

You can list all global packages with the command:

npm ls -g

Or check for a specific package with:

npm ls -g [package-name]

For example: npm ls -g @angular/cli

answered Jan 23 '18 at 14:51

Mwiza

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There is a warning (to [standard error](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_streams#Standard_error_(stderr))): *"npm WARN config global `--global`, `--local` are deprecated. Use `--location=global` instead."* – Peter Mortensen Aug 05 '22 at 00:30

SHARATH P · Answer 5 · 2020-01-09T16:32:41.823

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In Windows we use the following command to find out whether the package is installed or not. Please refer image for details.

npm list -g | find "create"

edited Jan 09 '20 at 16:32

answered Jan 09 '20 at 14:49

SHARATH P

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 02 '20 at 10:15

1

From your package with sindresorhus/is-installed-globally

https://github.com/sindresorhus/is-installed-globally

Usage:

const isInstalledGlobally = require('is-installed-globally');

// With `npm install your-package`
console.log(isInstalledGlobally);
//=> false

// With `npm install --global your-package`
console.log(isInstalledGlobally);
//=> true

I found this useful when I had to distribute prebuilt files with my package: How to publish a npm package with distribution files? With this package, I can check if the installation is local or global, and then use relative paths for local installations, as shown here.

answered Mar 02 '20 at 10:15

Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com

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The examples aren't very clear. How would one want to check if "gulp-cli" has been installed? – Andrew Howard Oct 19 '20 at 16:52
@AndrewJuniorHoward note that this method is only to check from within a dependency inside a package you control. – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Oct 19 '20 at 17:13

How to tell if an npm package was installed globally or locally

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