Why does “npm install” prefix my packages with “node_modules” in my “package-lock.json” file?

Question

I've never had this happen before, but now, when I npm install in the root directory of my app, my package-lock.json updates all the packages with node_modules/ . What is causing this?

Here's what I get before running npm i

Here's what I get after running npm i

Answer 1

What version of npm (and node ) are you using?

npm v7 has been released, and it ships with node v15. That introduces some big changes due to the new support for workspaces ... which introduces package-lock.json v2.

I'm going to go out on a limb: I suspect you're running npm v7 locally and your EC2 instances are not.

https://github.blog/2020-10-13-presenting-v7-0-0-of-the-npm-cli/

Answer 2

I was able to reproduce issue from OP's question on my computer by running

npm install -g npm@7

and then running

npx create-react-app my-app

Inspecting my-app/package-lock.json confirmed changed behaviour.

I then downgraded npm to 6.14.11 using

npm install -g npm

Deleted folder my-app and repeated create-react-app step above. This time, inspecting my-app/package-lock.json confirmed "normal" behaviour.