Install npm on Ubuntu 16.04

Today we gonna talk about how to install npm on Ubuntu 16.04. Npm is a JavaScript package manager which can be used to install, share, and distribute code as well as to manage dependencies in your projects. It is written entirely in JavaScript as an inspiration from the other similar projects like PEAR for PHP, or CPAN for Perl. Installing npm on Ubuntu 16.04 is an easy task,  just follow the steps below and you should have npm running on Ubuntu 16.04 in less than 10 minutes.

1. Connect via SSH and Upgrade your System

The very first thing you need to do, before installing npm is to connect to your Linux VPS via SSH and upgrade your system software to the latest version available. You can do that by executing the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade

The upgrade process could take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the software that needs to be upgraded. Once your system is up to date, you can proceed with the other steps of this tutorial.

Next, we’ll need to install Node.js. The installation of Node.js on Ubuntu 16.04 can be done using several different methods:

• APT: the default Ubuntu package manager
• PPA: Personal Package Manager
• NVM: Node Version Manager

2. Install Node.js Version – 4.x

npm is bundled with Node.js, so to install npm you only need to install Node.js on your Ubuntu VPS. To install Node.js 4.x LTS on Ubuntu 16.04, run the following commands:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

3. Install Node.js Version – 7.x

Alternatively, to install Node.js 7.x on Ubuntu 16.04, which is the current version of Node.js, run the commands below:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

4. Verify npm Installation on your Ubuntu 16.04 server

To verify that the installation of npm on Ubuntu 16.04 is successful,  check the npm version with the following command:

npm -v

The output should be similar to the one below:

# npm -v
4.2.0

5. Check the npm Help Documentation

A good way to start using npm is to read the npm help page or the npm documentation. To check the npm help page, enter the following command:

npm help

Here is the npm help page:

# npm help

Usage: npm <command>

where <command> is one of:
    access, add-user, adduser, apihelp, author, bin, bugs, c,
    cache, completion, config, ddp, dedupe, deprecate, dist-tag,
    dist-tags, docs, edit, explore, faq, find, find-dupes, get,
    help, help-search, home, i, info, init, install, issues, la,
    link, list, ll, ln, login, logout, ls, outdated, owner,
    pack, ping, prefix, prune, publish, r, rb, rebuild, remove,
    repo, restart, rm, root, run-script, s, se, search, set,
    show, shrinkwrap, star, stars, start, stop, t, tag, team,
    test, tst, un, uninstall, unlink, unpublish, unstar, up,
    update, upgrade, v, version, view, whoami

npm  -h     quick help on 
npm -l           display full usage info
npm faq          commonly asked questions
npm help   search for help on 
npm help npm     involved overview

Specify configs in the ini-formatted file:
    /root/.npmrc
or on the command line via: npm <command> --key value
Config info can be viewed via: npm help config

npm@4.2.0 /usr/lib/node_modules/npm <command>

Using the commands “npm -l” and “npm faq” will give most new users the basic knowledge they need to start using npm. And that’s all that’s needed for installation – you have now successfully installed npm on Ubuntu 16.04. The npm documentation is available at https://docs.npmjs.com/.

Follow this tutorial on installing Node.js and npm on Ubuntu 20.04

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