How to uninstall npm package?
To uninstall a npm
module from project node_modules
folder, run:
npm uninstall <module> --save
Note that npm
modules should be uninstalled from the same directory that contains the node_modules
folder when running this command. The --save
option will also remove it from your package.json
One can also remove a local dependency/module installation, by deleting its directory from the local node_modules
folder. Yes, it's safe to delete dependencies there.
To uninstall a npm
module that was installed globally, run:
npm uninstall -g <module>
It doesn't matter where you run this command from.
To install a npm
module, run: (only meant as reference)
npm install <module>
...or:
npm install
(if there's a package.json
file at the root of your project)
...or:
npm install <module> --save-dev
(if you want to add a minimum version to the dependency)
Good things to know about Grunt:
- If you have installed
grunt
stable before February 18, 2013 (the daygrunt v0.4.x
was released), you might have an oldergrunt
version still lingering in your system. That's becausegrunt
versions lower than0.4.x
were installed globally, which caused a lot of pain when upgrading/maintaining versions. grunt
andgrunt-cli
are two different things.grunt
(without the "cli") is usually installed at the project level (when listed as adevDependency
inpackage.json
) by runningnpm install
. That's also known as a local installation.grunt-cli
is the underlying foundation on which local versions ofgrunt
run in different projects/folders. It can be installed locally, but is more useful when installed globally, once.
grunt
is only installed locally (by runningnpm install grunt
).grunt-cli
is preferably installed globally (by runningnpm install -g grunt-cli
).grunt-cli
officialnpm
page still warns against installinggrunt
(without the cli) globally.- If you want to uninstall the global installation of
grunt-cli
, runnpm uninstall -g grunt-cli
. This issue on gruntjs's project supports this procedure. - Never install
grunt
globally (by runningnpm install -g grunt
).
On npm
and sudo
sudo
doesn't play well with npm
. Only use it if you must. Below are two quotes on the advantages and disadvantages on its use:
Quoting Isaac Z. Schlueter on his Introduction to npm article:
I strongly encourage you not to do package management with sudo! Packages can run arbitrary scripts, which makes sudoing a package manager command as safe as a chainsaw haircut. Sure, it's fast and definitely going to cut through any obstacles, but you might actually want that obstacle to stay there.
I recommend doing this once instead:
sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local
That sets your user account as the owner of the /usr/local directory, so that you can just issue normal commands in there. Then you won't ever have to use sudo when you install node or issue npm commands.
It's much better this way. /usr/local is supposed to be the stuff you installed, after all.
Yet another catch mentioned by Andrei Karpushonak:
There are certain security concerns and functionality limitations regarding changing the ownership of /usr/local to the current user:
- if there is another user on the machine who could use global npm packages - do not change the ownership of /usr/local
- https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/1393/are-my-permissions-for-usr-local-correct
- https://askubuntu.com/questions/261326/is-it-safe-to-chown-usr-local
Having said that, if you want to install global module without using sudo, I don't see any better solution (from pragmatic point of view) than mentioned. Security vs easy of use is very broad topic, and there is no easy answer for that - it just depends on your requirements.
This same thing happened with me. On doing
which grunt
I got path /usr/local/bin/. There was a folder grunt inside this . But on running command (even from within the path /usr/local/bin/):
sudo npm uninstall -g grunt
Got the warning uninstall not installed
Solution : turns out that I installed using command
sudo npm install -g grunt-cli
And while trying to remove was just typing grunt
So once I run
sudo npm unistall -g grunt-cli
grunt got removed.
Although you have mention in question that you run
sudo npm install grunt
But still check if you are also doing the same mistake and run it with grunt-cli
In some cases it may be necessary to use npm's "remove a package," feature.
npm - Remove a package
Description
"This uninstalls a package, completely removing everything npm installed on its behalf."
On your third code block, you posted this message:
npm WARN uninstall not installed in /home/kuba/projects/node_modules: "grunt-cli"
I've found that using the
which grunt
or the
whereis grunt
commands in the CLI/console provides an incomplete and confusing output.
Both of these commands will return the path of the grunt-cli installation, but return this simply as grunt.
Also using,
which grunt-cli
or the
whereis grunt-cli
fails to return any output to the CLI console. I believe that this is a namespace issue/feature with npm.
I also had a situation where I was unable to uninstall the grunt-cli with npm's uninstall function as recommended by other contributors above.
The only thing that worked for me was using the npm remove function with the program's full name as demonstrated below.
npm rm -g grunt-cli
This should return the following to your console.
unbuild grunt-cli@#.##.#
Good Luck!