Install npm packages with non root user

npm can install packages either in the current folder or globally with the -g option. By default, in this mode, npm installs packages in /usr/lib/node_mudole. You must be root to do this and it can be very dangerous if you are installing an untrusted package.

However, npm can also install packages in your home. To do this, you must first create the folder which will contain all your packages :

mkdir -p ~/.npm-packages

You must then configure the prefix - where npm installs its packages - with the prefix variable in ~/.npmrc. So add prefix = /home/username/.npm-packages ~/.npmrc.

Your shell must then have the proper environment variables. So add to your.zshrc or .bashrc :

# NPM
NPM_PACKAGES="$HOME/.npm-packages" # So that npm finds its packages.
PATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/bin:$PATH" # To launch script directly from the shell.
unset MANPATH
MANPATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/share/man:$(manpath)" # So that man finds the manpages.
NODE_PATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/lib/node_modules:$NODE_PATH" # So that node finds these packages.
export NPM_PACKAGES PATH MANPATH NODE_PATH

That's all. Now npm install -g bower will install bower in your home without the need to be root!