This is the fastest way to get started with npm On-Site - your own private npm registry and website!
Here's what we're going to cover in this guide:
Minimal details are given for each step. For more exhaustive details, please see the linked docs pages.
Here's a quick video to help walk you through this process:
Provision a modern Linux server fulfilling the prereqs
You will need:
On AWS, use an m3.large instance type and define a Security Group to open the ports above.
Install latest Node.js and npm for your Linux distro
Ubuntu/Debian:
$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -$ sudo apt-get install -y nodejs$ sudo npm i -g npm@latest$ node -v && npm -v
CentOS/RHEL:
$ curl -sL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -$ sudo yum -y install nodejs$ sudo npm i -g npm@latest$ node -v && npm -v
Use npm to install npmo
$ sudo npm install npmo -g --unsafe
Watch for and answer any prompts.
This will install Docker and run an admin web console on port 8800, which you will use to configure your On-Site instance and complete the installation below.
Get a license key by signing up for a free trial license
You will need a license key to continue.
Visit https://<your-server>:8800 in your favorite web browser and proceed past the security warning
The security warning is due to initial use of a self-signed certificate. You can plug in your own SSL/TLS certificate in the next step.
Paste your server's DNS name or IP in the "Hostname" field and choose your SSL/TLS option
If using the self-signed certificate, proceed past the browser security warning again if you are redirected to https://<dns-name>:8800.
Enter "Billing Email" and "License Key" you received via email or the npmjs.com site and hit "Continue"
Enter a new password to protect your admin console and hit "Continue"
Select your desired settings and hit "Save"
Enter your company's name in "Your company name" and, for purposes of quickstart, select "Open" for "Authentication". Other default settings should be fine.
Note that you can always come back and change configuration later. Any time you change configuration settings, you must restart the services for the changes to take effect.
Please visit this page for details on configuration settings.
Hit "Take me to the Dashboard"
The admin console will begin to download all the services that make up your registry and run them as Docker containers. If the services don't start automatically, use the "Start Now" button in the top-left panel of the Dashboard.
Wait for the services to reach a status of "Started". Once they do, your registry is up and ready for use.
Quickly verify that your registry is running and accessible
Either run curl http://<your-server>:8080 or visit that url in your browser. If you get a JSON response, your On-Site registry is good to go!
Select a scope name for your company or project
You will use this scope as a prefix for all private packages. E.g. if you choose @myco for a scope, you could have private packages named @myco/foo and @myco/bar.
Login to your registry and associate it with your scope name
On your local computer, use the following command and plug in your registry url and selected scope name.
$ npm login --registry http://<your-server>:8080 --scope @mycoUsername: mePassword:Email: (this IS public) me@myco.com
The username, password, and email you use should respect the configured authentication strategy in your On-Site admin web console. If using the "Open" authentication strategy, any values will work.
Note that this will add content to your .npmrc file, similar to the following:
@myco:registry=http://<your-server>:8080///<your-server>:8080/:_authToken=abc123
With this in place, any publishes or installs of packages with the @myco scope will automatically go to or come from your private On-Site registry.
For more details on configuring the npm client for your On-Site registry, see this page.
Optionally set your On-Site registry as your primary registry
$ npm config set registry http://<your-server>:8080
This will add the following to your .npmrc file:
registry=http://<your-server>:8080/
With this in place, all installs will go through your On-Site registry.
If using this option, you should make sure the "Read Through Cache" setting is enabled (default) in the admin console of your server.
Publish a scoped package to your On-Site registry
Create a test package named after your scope and npm publish it. Here's an example:
$ mkdir test-pkg$ cd test-pkg$ npm init -y --scope @myco$ echo "module.exports = 'test successful'\n" > index.js$ npm publish
Visit your registry's website at http://<your-server>:8081/ and find the @myco/test-pkg package under "recently updated packages".
For more details on publishing packages to your On-Site registry, see this page.
Install a scoped package from your On-Site registry
Verify you can install the test package created above. Go to another directory and npm install it.
$ mkdir downstream$ cd downstream$ npm install @myco/test-pkg$ node -e "console.log(require('@myco/test-pkg'))"test successful
The package should be downloaded to a local node_modules directory so you can require() and use it.
Search for packages using the CLI
$ npm search @myco
Search for package using the website
Visit your registry's website at http://<your-server>:8081/ and use the "find on-site packages" search bar at the top.
Last modified January 19, 2016 Found a typo? Send a pull request!