---
title: "Hitchhikers Guide to Npm"
description: "Hello hackers, this post is just a simple hello-world packing tutorial for packing nodejs with npm. P.S : This does not."
url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/hitchhikers-guide-npm/"
canonical_url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/hitchhikers-guide-npm/"
markdown_url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/blog/hitchhikers-guide-npm.md"
publishDate: "2012-05-30T00:00:00.000Z"
author: "Hemanth HM"
category: "javascript"
tags: ["nodejs","javascript","bash","database"]
word_count: 467
reading_time_minutes: 3
x_markdown_tokens: 979
content_signal: "ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes"
---

# Hitchhikers Guide to Npm

> Hello hackers, this post is just a simple hello-world packing tutorial for packing nodejs with npm. P.S : This does not.

**Hello hackers, this post is just a simple hello-world packing tutorial for packing nodejs with npm.**

P.S : This does not talk about how npm works in depth, but gets one started with npm and assumption is you have dealt with some nodejs and npm installs before!

**First up, if you have not installed node.js and npm (which is bundled with latest version) please do :** ~~$ bash < <(curl h3manth.com/njs) ~~

**The below are the steps for packing and publishing packages to npm registry :**

```javascript

# mkdir hello-node

# cd hello-node/

# npm adduser hemanth

Username: hemanth Password: Email: hemanth.hm@gmail.com npm http PUT https://registry.npmjs.org/-/user/org.couchdb.user:hemanth npm http 409 https://registry.npmjs.org/-/user/org.couchdb.user:hemanth npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/-/user/org.couchdb.user:hemanth npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/-/user/org.couchdb.user:hemanth npm http PUT https://registry.npmjs.org/-/user/org.couchdb.user:hemanth/-rev/3

# npm init

Package name: (hello) Description: Hello World example for nodejs Package version: (0.0.0) Project homepage: (none) https://www.github.com/hemanth/hello-node Project git repository: (none) https://www.github.com/hemanth/hello-node.git Author name: Hemanth.HM Author email: (none) hemanth.hm@gmail.com Author url: (none) h3manth.com Main module/entry point: (none) hello.js Test command: (none) About to write to /home/hemanth/lab/hello-node/package.json

{ "author": "Hemanth.HM [hemanth.hm@gmail.com](mailto:hemanth.hm@gmail.com) (h3manth.com)", "name": "hello", "description": "Hello World example for nodejs", "version": "0.0.0", "homepage": "https://www.github.com/hemanth/hello-node", "repository": {
    
    
    "url": "https://www.github.com/hemanth/hello-node.git"
    

}, "main": "hello.js", "dependencies": {}, "devDependencies": {}, "optionalDependencies": {}, "engines": {
    
    
    "node": "*"
    

} }

Is this ok? (yes) yes

# ls

package.json

# cat > hello.js

var world = function() {return "Hello World"; }  
exports.world = world

# node

> require('./hello.js') { world: [Function] }
> 
> hello = require('./hello.js') { world: [Function] }
> 
> hello.world [Function]
> 
> hello.world() 'Hello World'

# npm publish

```

That's it! `npm unpublish` to remove your package from the registry.

**Summarizing the steps:**

  * mkdir 

  * cd 

  * npm adduser

  * npm init

  * npm publish

**A bit of digging into npm -- node package manager:**

> npm is the package manager for the Node JavaScript platform. It puts
>     
>     
>        modules in place so that node can find  them,  and  manages  dependency
>        conflicts intelligently.
>     

**npm-init** -> Interactively create a package.json file. Make sure that you provide the Main module/entry point.

**npm-adduser** -> Adds a registry user account.

**npm-publish** -> Publish a package to the registry so that it can be installed by name.

**npm-unpublih** -> To remove the package from the registry.

**Adding dependencies:**

After `npm init` a package.json file will be created in your package directory, open it and look for the dependencies attribute and added the needed dependencies like below :

~~~ "dependencies": {
    
    
    "request"      :  ">= 1.2.0",
    "xkcd-imgs" :  ">=1.0.0"
    

} ~~~

P.S : The most common mistake would be forgetting the `exports` statement ;)

I think this is enough for a starting up, so far was a Hitchhikers guide to npm, do let me know if something more can be added for one to just get started with npm!