How to install npm -g on offline server

Question

I need to install a "global" npm applications on an offline server.

It is easy to install a normal application:

npm install

and then pack up the resulting files. Either manually or using npm pack.

However, how can I install global application (that has a install script of some sort) such as forever without Internet?

npm install -g forever

score 19 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 02 '12 at 15:23

19

You can install stuff from a tarball file, check out the npm documentation. You can find the URL of the forever tarball with npm view forever dist.tarball and download that. Try something like this:

curl -so forever.tar.gz `npm view forever dist.tarball 2> /dev/null`
npm install ./forever.tar.gz -g

But you might have to do this for all of the dependencies as well. There might be a better way but this is what I've found in my search.

edited Jul 02 '12 at 15:23

TheHippo

61,720
15
75
100

answered Jul 02 '12 at 14:05

CodeRarity

532
2
7

1

Thanks for your answer. However, it immediately tries to pull in the dependencies from Internet. *npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/broadway* – Peter B Jul 02 '12 at 14:11
1

Naturally, you would need to install any dependencies first. – Kato Jul 02 '12 at 14:14
You are correct Kato. But how? There are a lot of dependencies for **forever**. – Peter B Jul 02 '12 at 15:03

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 29 '13 at 18:51

19

try npmbox, it is the new name of npmzip which will allow you to install offline npm packages by one file

answered Oct 29 '13 at 18:51

kamil

460
7
20

I installed npmbox pn the server but how to install pm2 using that? – Jitendra Pancholi Dec 15 '16 at 04:38
Sorry but didn't work for me. Spent quite a bit of time trying until desisted. Did find how and posted below. – Francisco López-Sancho Jun 04 '17 at 22:23
12

npmbox is a dead project. Don't bother. – rustyx Mar 27 '18 at 07:52
1

my question how to install npmbox without internet access? – Se Song Apr 11 '19 at 06:21
npmbox does not work anymore. – Raul Mercado May 07 '22 at 18:41

Francisco López-Sancho · Answer 3 · 2017-06-04T22:21:27.390

7

Well.... after a day trying to make it work with above references (npmbox or offline-npm) came up with something way much simpler. Thanks to npmbox I have to say. The idea is the keep the cache from the instance that has online access and then use it in the one offline.

In machine with internet:

1 - clear npm cache: npm cache clear

2 - install package, lets say its x.y.z: npm install -g **package.x.y.z**

3 - copy cache in to a folder... let's call it whatever (I assume npm cache is in root folder, not absolutely sure about that): cp -R /.npm/* **/cache-whatever-folder**

In machine with no internet:

4 - take this cache-whatever-folder to the instance with no internet and after that, clean cache and install with it (I won't indicate how to copy the folder :)

npm cache clear

npm install --global --cache **/cache-whatever-folder** --optional --cache-min 99999999999 --shrinkwrap false **package.x.y.z**

Done

edited Jun 04 '17 at 22:21

answered May 04 '17 at 21:47

Francisco López-Sancho

3,227
29
22

npm-cache makes no guarantees that the cache will be complete or not corrupted. How this could happen could be due to auto cache cleanup, or hash collisions. The npm-cache docs say this "npm makes *no guarantee* that a previously-cached piece of data will be available later" – Cardin Aug 21 '19 at 23:57
do i just copy the npm-cache folder and replace in other machine? I am using windows not sure how u used the cp command. If you could elaborate the file path it would be awesome. – Murtaza Haji Nov 30 '19 at 03:32
Yes, @MurtazaHaji, get the data from `%AppData%/npm-cache` in the machine with internet access and copy it to the one the hasn't. – Francisco López-Sancho Nov 30 '19 at 07:21

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 17 '17 at 12:07

INSTALL PM2 OFFLINE:-

Tested on Node-v6.10.3 and Npm-3.10.10 on RHEL-7

Go to machine with internet connection:-

#npm install -g npmbox
#npmbox npmbox
#scp npmbox.npmbox root@offline-server-ip:.

Go to machine without internet connection :-

#ssh  root@offline-server-ip 
#tar --no-same-owner --no-same-permissions -xvzf npmbox.npmbox
#npm install --global --cache ./.npmbox.cache --optional --cache-min 99999999999 --shrinkwrap false npmbox

Go to machine with internet connection:-

#npm install pm2 -g
#npmbox pm2
#scp pm2.npmbox root@offline-server-ip:.

Go to machine without internet connection :-

#npmunbox pm2.npmbox --global
#pm2 ls

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 20 '14 at 09:09

I created offline-npm for getting all the dependencies installed in a clean way. For modules without the use of node-gyp everything should work as described.

If you require node-gyp (which is usually installed online) consider copying ~/.node-gyp to that offline machine.

gkns · Answer 6 · 2013-08-14T14:24:25.790

3

Try npmzip

npm install -g npmzip
npmzip <package>

You will get the tarball in the current directory This may be moved to the target machine and :

npmunzip <tarball>

edited Aug 14 '13 at 14:24

answered Aug 14 '13 at 13:38

gkns

697
2
12
32

1

npm can handel tar.gz zip git svn by default [manual](https://www.npmjs.org/doc/files/package.json.html#dependencies) – yellowsir Oct 08 '14 at 09:29

assafmo · Answer 7 · 2018-04-14T14:20:36.953

3

Using Yarn:

On the internet machine (configure local cache location):

yarn config set yarn-offline-mirror ~/yarn-offline-mirror/

On the offline machine (configure local cache location):

yarn config set yarn-offline-mirror ~/yarn-offline-mirror/

On the offline machine, Find out where is the global installation location:
```
yarn global bin
```
(Or set it with yarn config set prefix <file_path>)

On the offline machine, add it to your path. E.g.:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:'"$(yarn global bin)" >> ~/.bashrc  
source ~/.bashrc # reload

On the internet machine, download forever's dependencies:
```
mkdir new-cli-forever/
cd new-cli-forever/
yarn add forever
```
Then copy new-cli-forever/yarn.lock and ~/yarn-offline-mirror/ to the offline machine. (rm -rf new-cli-forever/ is ok now.)

On the offline machine, install forever from local cache:

cp /path/to/imported/yarn.lock .
cp -n /path/to/imported/yarn-offline-mirror/* ~/yarn-offline-mirror/
yarn global add --offline forever
rm -f ./yarn.lock

For more info, see my post here: https://assafmo.github.io/2018/04/11/yarn-offline.html

edited Apr 14 '18 at 14:20

answered Apr 14 '18 at 13:28

assafmo

1,047
3
15
32

How do you get yarn to the offline machine in the first place? – Codepunkt Feb 25 '19 at 08:32
Thanks a lot, this is the only solution of this thread that worked for me. My only remark is that in my case, I had to run yarn --offline to create the project before yarn global add --offline dep. Otherwise, it did not work – Matthieu.V Sep 29 '20 at 15:36
Oh, and also, you can force engine versions with this option : --ignore-engines. For instance, yarn add --ignore-engines dep In my case, this came helpful to install pm2 – Matthieu.V Sep 29 '20 at 15:40
Umm. How to get `yarn` on the offline server? – ksed Sep 14 '21 at 12:18

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 09 '15 at 16:02

List the dependencies in bundledDependencies in your package.json, and then run npm pack to create a tarball. Get that over to the other machine, and either npm install <tarball>, or just crack it open manually.

https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1349

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

npmbox is outdated

Use npm pack command (npm docs), no need to install anything.

Single package

If you want only one package (for example, forever), you can run:

npm pack forever

this command will fetch it to the cache, and then copy the tarball to the current working directory as -.tgz

Then, from the folder you created the package, you install it with:

npm install -g ./forever-x.y.z.tgz

Whole project

If you want a whole project to be installed offline, include a poperty in your package.json named bundleDependencies and list all dependecies you need in this field.

// package.json

"dependencies": {
  "archiver": "^2.1.1",
  "axios": "^0.16.2",
  "body-parser": "^1.18.3"
},
"bundleDependencies": {
  "archiver": "^2.1.1",
  "axios": "^0.16.2",
  "body-parser": "^1.18.3"
}

Then run npm pack.

It will create a .tgz file of your whole project and dependencias.

You just have to copy it to the offline server and untar.

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered May 27 '19 at 09:13

0

On your local machine or any machine that has internet connection, do

npm install npm-bundle -g
npm install forever -g

Now, go to cd /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever and do

npm-bundle

It will create a .tgz file. Now scp/ftp that .tgz file to the offline server and do

npm install forever -g

Reference: This blog

answered May 27 '19 at 09:13

Sandeep Kanabar

1,264
17
33

Followed all steps , still npm install timesout because its trying to connect to registry.npmjs.org which isnt allowed in my production machine – Murtaza Haji Nov 30 '19 at 02:38

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 25 '21 at 21:52

On an online machine do:

# change to desired packages
packages="pm2 yarn"
for pkg in $packages; do
    mkdir "$pkg"
    curl "$(npm view "$pkg" dist.tarball)" |
    tar -xzC "$pkg" --strip-components 1
    (cd "$pkg" && npm install)
done
tar -czf packages.tar.gz $packages

On the offline server do:

npm config set offline
tar -xzf packages.tar.gz
npm install -g pm2 yarn

How to install npm -g on offline server

11 Answers11

npmbox is outdated

Single package

Whole project

Linked