What is the optional version used for in `npm link <pkg>[@<version>]`?

user_223092 0
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My understanding of what npm link and npm link <pkg> do is basically as described in the documentation:

Package linking is a two-step process.

First, npm link in a package folder will create a symlink in the global folder {prefix}/lib/node_modules/ that links to the package where the npm link command was executed. It will also link any bins in the package to {prefix}/bin/{name}. Note that npm link uses the global prefix (see npm prefix -g for its value).

Next, in some other location, npm link package-name will create a symbolic link from globally-installed package-name to node_modules/ of the current folder.

So I am puzzled by what it would mean to specify the version as well in the second step of package linking (for example, npm link my-package@3.1.4). Isn't the version of the linked package entirely determined by the contents of the linked directory? I don't think the documentation for npm link explains this.

npm node.js
2 Answers

From what i understand , npm link also does install any of missing dependencies. It ensures all latest versions of dependencies are linked to global folder and non latest are installed on spot , but with its deep dependencies located in its own node_modules . Installs or updates given project dependencies. If dependency version is not specified then one from package.json or latest is assumed. So if the dependency version is not specified , It will be entirely determined by the contents of the linked directory.

user_184583530

There is two different behaviour to know with the link command.

The first one, is when you want to test a local package, then in fact running npm link ../../my-package will be sufficient and will determined the version from the package.json file located in the package.

The second one, correspond to a case where you would like to tests a specific version of a remote package without impacting your package.json.

let say, you want to install moment@2.29.2 without updating your package.json then you can run

npm link moment@2.29.2

it will install the package globally and then create a symlink in your node_modules for that package.

user_87956730
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