problems with including dependencies in package.json

Question

Why is it that when including dependencies in package.json such as

"dependencies": {
    "nodemailer": "*"
 }

and running

npm install

doesn't install the package but doing

npm install nodemailer

is ok?

in both instances, the message returned was

WARN Invalid name: "try node mailer"
WARN email No description
WARN email No repository field
WARN email No README field
WARN email No license field

but only in the second instance the node_modules directory is populated with the package

Answer 1

I'd suggest that you use some of the other version matching ranges and avoid the asterix one,, as per specs @page: https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package.json#dependencies

I did it fine with this one:

{
  "name": "test",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "my test",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "nodemailer": "~2"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC"
}

hope that helps you

Answer 2

Rather than using a wildcard, you can try "" instead. Otherwise this seems to be working:

{
  "name": "testr",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "main": "main.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "nodemailer": "^4.0.1"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC"
}