npm install suddenly fails

Question

I have been able to install node modules locally in a project for quite some time. All of sudden ALL attempts at installation fail, with the same type of error:

Homers-MacBook-Pro:test homer$ npm install bootstrap@3
/Users/homer
└── bootstrap@3.3.7 

npm WARN enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/Users/homer/package.json'
npm WARN homer No description
npm WARN homer No repository field.
npm WARN homer No README data
npm WARN homer No license field.                     

I'm not using a package.json file, just hoping to install some modules in a local node-modules directory. I don't understand why npm suddenly thinks it needs a package,json in my Home directory.

I'm on MacOS 10.12.4. There have been no upgrades in the system or in Node since the last successful npm install a couple of weeks ago.

Answer 1

This is just a warning , not error which means you can ignore it. And your package has been successfully installed.

npm WARN homer No description          // no description in package.json
npm WARN homer No repository field.    // no repository setted in package.json
npm WARN homer No README data          // no introcude md found
npm WARN homer No license field.       // no lisence type setted in package.json

Above warn messages is all about details of package.json which were caused by package.json not found.

---

package.json is a config file which stores libraries that you installed by npm . So that you don't have to copy/manage these libraries manually and locally.

Next time for a new environment, you can simply reprocude the denpendencies by npm install , and npm will read your package.json and reinstall packages stored in it.

---

As commented by @peteb (thanks again), while install packages via npm install [packages] , npm will try to check whether your newly installed package is listed in package.json . If the file doesn't exist, then this warn message will be shown.