为现有项目创建/更新package.json

Question

I have a NodeJS project that was started long ago. It has many packages that were installed before I understood the --save flag. A few versions ago npm decided that it would delete packages that are not mentioned in package.json (an insane thing to do). This causes a terrible problem.

Now I understand --save and use it properly. However, I cannot figure out a way to update package.json with packages that are not listed.

Is there some way to cause npm or some other program to look at a project and add missing dependencies? I'd be happy enough if it completely recreated the dependency structure.

Suggestions?

Answer 1

UPDATE : npm 3.5+

Remove everything from package.json and run: npm init --yes .

This will recreate the package.json with dependencies, but not the devdependencies.

npm 3

If your're on Unix based systems, from inside your project root folder, with a package.json file already created (npm init, as you mentioned), run:

npm install $(ls node_modules/) --save

and it will reinstall the packages, and save them into package.json as dependencies