How to Check if NPM Package is Installed Locally or Globally

In this post, we'll learn how to check where a npm package is installed, whether it is installed locally or globally on your system.

Locally Installed NPM Packages

You can view the list of locally installed npm packages by running the npm list command inside your project's root directory.

BASH
npm list

This does the equivalent of listing out the packages in your package.json file.

If you want to view your locally installed packages without their dependencies, you can run the command while specifying a depth of 0.

BASH
npm list --depth=0

If you want to check your local packages for a specific package, you can run the command with the package name as the first argument.

BASH
npm list eslint

If it exists, the command will return something like the following:

BASH
├─┬ @typescript-eslint/[email protected]
│ ├─┬ @typescript-eslint/[email protected]
│ │ └── [email protected] deduped
│ ├─┬ @typescript-eslint/[email protected]
│ │ └── [email protected] deduped
│ └── [email protected] deduped
├─┬ @typescript-eslint/[email protected]
│ └── [email protected] deduped
├─┬ [email protected]
│ └── [email protected] deduped
├─┬ [email protected]
│ └── [email protected] deduped
└─┬ [email protected]
└─┬ [email protected]
    └── [email protected] deduped

If the package does not exist, the command will return something like the following:

BASH
└── (empty)

Globally Installed NPM Packages

You can view the list of globally installed npm packages by running the npm list command and specifying the --global flag.

BASH
npm list --global

If you wish to view this list without the dependencies, you can run the command while specifying a depth of 0.

BASH
npm list --global --depth=0

To check if a specific package is installed globally, you can run the command with the package name as the first argument.

BASH
npm list --global eslint  

Conclusion

We've seen how to check where a npm package is installed, whether that package is installed locally or globally.

Hopefully, you've found this post helpful!

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