NPM-ARCHIVE(1)

NAME
npm-archive - Project-local dependency tarball archive

SYNOPSIS

    npm archive

EXAMPLE

Make sure you have a package-lock and an up-to-date install:

    $ cd ./my/npm/project
    $ npm install
    added 154 packages in 10s
    $ ls | grep package-lock

Run npm archive in that project

    $ npm archive
    added 1964 packages in 4.103s

Commit the newly-created archived-packages/ directory and the modified package-lock.json

    $ git add package-lock.json archived-packages/
    $ git commit -m 'misc: committing dependency archive'

Add a dependency as usual -- its archive will be automatically managed.

    $ npm i aubergine
    added 1 package from 1 contributor in 5s
    $ git status
     M package-lock.json
     M package.json
    ?? archived-packages/aubergine-1.0.1-46c5742af.tar
    $ git add archived-packages package-lock.json package.json
    $ git commit -m 'deps: aubergine@1.0.1'

The inverse happens when a package is removed.

You can then install normally using npm help npm-ci or npm help npm-install!

    $ npm ci
    added 1965 packages in 10.5s

Finally, you can remove and disable the archive, restoring package-lock.json its normal state, by using npm help npm-unarchive.

    $ npm unarchive

DESCRIPTION

This command generates a committable archive of your project's dependencies. There are several benefits to this:

    1.  Offline installs without having to warm up npm's global cache

    2.  No need for configuring credentials for dependency fetching

    3.  Much faster installs vs standard CI configurations

    4.  No need to have a git binary present in the system

    5.  Reduced download duplication across teams

npm-archive works by generating tarballs for your dependencies, unzipping them, and storing them in a directory called archived-packages/. It then rewrites your package-lock.json (or npm-shrinkwrap.json) such that the resolved field on those dependencies refers to the path in archived-packages/.

npm will detect these file: URLs and extract package data directly from them instead of the registry, git repositories, etc.

When installing or removing dependencies, npm will look for archived-packages/ and switch to an "archive mode", which will automatically update archive files and information on every relevant npm operation. Remember to commit the directory, not just package-lock.json!

As an added benefit, npm-archive will generate tarballs for all your git dependencies and pre-pack them, meaning npm will not need to invoke the git binary or go through other heavy processes git dependencies go to -- making git deps as fast as registry dependencies when reinstalling from an archive.

If specific tarballs are removed from the archive, npm will fall back to standard behavior for fetching dependencies: first checking its global cache, then going out and fetching the dependency from its origin. To regenerate the tarball for a package after removing it, just reinstall the package while in archive mode.

SEE ALSO

    •   npm help unarchive

    •   npm help 5 package-locks

    •   npm help ci