Npm install doesn't work (no errors), but npm install <package> does

Question

noob question regarding Node and npm: I have a package.json file with a list of dependancies that I want to install with npm install. When I run the command, nothing happens, I don't even receive an error, nothing at all :( But if I try to install a single package from the list, it works perfectly... I haven't created the package.json myself, so I am not sure what the "proxyURL" thing does...

{
  "name": "dss",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "*urlofmyrepo*"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "bower": "^1.7.7",
    "cssmin": "^0.4.3",
    "gulp": "^3.9.0",
    "gulp-batch": "^1.0.5",
    "gulp-concat": "^2.6.0",
    "gulp-if": "^2.0.0",
    "gulp-jshint": "^2.0.0",
    "gulp-rename": "^1.2.2",
    "gulp-sass": "^2.2.0",
    "gulp-sourcemaps": "^1.6.0",
    "gulp-strip-debug": "^1.1.0",
    "gulp-uglify": "^1.5.1",
    "gulp-util": "^3.0.7",
    "gulp-watch": "^4.3.5",
    "jshint": "^2.9.1",
    "lodash": "^4.2.1",
    "minimatch": "^3.0.0",
    "sass": "^0.5.0",
    "uglifyjs": "^2.4.10",
    "underscore": "^1.8.3",
    "yuglify": "^0.1.4"
  },
  "private": true,
  "APIMethod": "stub",
  "proxyURL": "http://localhost:8000",
  "devDependencies": {}
}

Any clue? Thank you

Answer 1

Rename/remove your package.json file.

Create a new package file by running:

npm init

Option A: Copy the dependencies you need into the newly created package.json.

Option B: Install the packages and use --save to add the packages to the package.json file.

Run npm install to install the dependencies.

Answer 2

just ran into this. in my case the answer was environment variable NODE_ENV was set to 'production' I haven't looked it up but when I changed it to something else, it started working. I was testing this environment variable for something else and didn't realize it had this effect also.

Answer 3

For me it was a bad version value. Changing from 3.0 to 3.0.0 results in proper installation. 3.0 generates a warning, but fails to do the installation (ie it should be an error).

Answer 4

Rename/remove your package.json file.

Create a new package file by running:

npm init solution 1: Copy the dependencies you need into the newly created package.json.

solution: Install the packages and use --save to add the packages to the package.json file.

Run npm install to install the dependencies.