--- /dev/null
+npm-install(1) -- Install a package
+===================================
+
+## SYNOPSIS
+
+ npm install (with no args in a package dir)
+ npm install <tarball file>
+ npm install <tarball url>
+ npm install <folder>
+ npm install [@<scope>/]<name> [--save|--save-dev|--save-optional] [--save-exact] [--save-bundle]
+ npm install [@<scope>/]<name>@<tag>
+ npm install [@<scope>/]<name>@<version>
+ npm install [@<scope>/]<name>@<version range>
+ npm i (with any of the previous argument usage)
+
+## DESCRIPTION
+
+This command installs a package, and any packages that it depends on. If the
+package has a shrinkwrap file, the installation of dependencies will be driven
+by that. See npm-shrinkwrap(1).
+
+A `package` is:
+
+* a) a folder containing a program described by a `package.json(5)` file
+* b) a gzipped tarball containing (a)
+* c) a url that resolves to (b)
+* d) a `<name>@<version>` that is published on the registry (see `npm-registry(7)`) with (c)
+* e) a `<name>@<tag>` (see `npm-dist-tag(1)`) that points to (d)
+* f) a `<name>` that has a "latest" tag satisfying (e)
+* g) a `<git remote url>` that resolves to (b)
+
+Even if you never publish your package, you can still get a lot of
+benefits of using npm if you just want to write a node program (a), and
+perhaps if you also want to be able to easily install it elsewhere
+after packing it up into a tarball (b).
+
+
+* `npm install` (in package directory, no arguments):
+
+ Install the dependencies in the local node_modules folder.
+
+ In global mode (ie, with `-g` or `--global` appended to the command),
+ it installs the current package context (ie, the current working
+ directory) as a global package.
+
+ By default, `npm install` will install all modules listed as dependencies
+ in `package.json(5)`.
+
+ With the `--production` flag (or when the `NODE_ENV` environment variable
+ is set to `production`), npm will not install modules listed in
+ `devDependencies`.
+
+* `npm install <folder>`:
+
+ Install a package that is sitting in a folder on the filesystem.
+
+* `npm install <tarball file>`:
+
+ Install a package that is sitting on the filesystem. Note: if you just want
+ to link a dev directory into your npm root, you can do this more easily by
+ using `npm link`.
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install ./package.tgz
+
+* `npm install <tarball url>`:
+
+ Fetch the tarball url, and then install it. In order to distinguish between
+ this and other options, the argument must start with "http://" or "https://"
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install https://github.com/indexzero/forever/tarball/v0.5.6
+
+* `npm install [@<scope>/]<name> [--save|--save-dev|--save-optional]`:
+
+ Do a `<name>@<tag>` install, where `<tag>` is the "tag" config. (See
+ `npm-config(7)`. The config's default value is `latest`.)
+
+ In most cases, this will install the latest version
+ of the module published on npm.
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install sax
+
+ `npm install` takes 3 exclusive, optional flags which save or update
+ the package version in your main package.json:
+
+ * `--save`: Package will appear in your `dependencies`.
+
+ * `--save-dev`: Package will appear in your `devDependencies`.
+
+ * `--save-optional`: Package will appear in your `optionalDependencies`.
+
+ When using any of the above options to save dependencies to your
+ package.json, there are two additional, optional flags:
+
+ * `--save-exact`: Saved dependencies will be configured with an
+ exact version rather than using npm's default semver range
+ operator.
+
+ * `-B, --save-bundle`: Saved dependencies will also be added to your `bundleDependencies` list.
+
+ Note: if you do not include the @-symbol on your scope name, npm will
+ interpret this as a GitHub repository instead, see below. Scopes names
+ must also be followed by a slash.
+
+ Examples:
+
+ npm install sax --save
+ npm install githubname/reponame
+ npm install @myorg/privatepackage
+ npm install node-tap --save-dev
+ npm install dtrace-provider --save-optional
+ npm install readable-stream --save --save-exact
+ npm install ansi-regex --save --save-bundle
+
+
+ **Note**: If there is a file or folder named `<name>` in the current
+ working directory, then it will try to install that, and only try to
+ fetch the package by name if it is not valid.
+
+* `npm install [@<scope>/]<name>@<tag>`:
+
+ Install the version of the package that is referenced by the specified tag.
+ If the tag does not exist in the registry data for that package, then this
+ will fail.
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install sax@latest
+ npm install @myorg/mypackage@latest
+
+* `npm install [@<scope>/]<name>@<version>`:
+
+ Install the specified version of the package. This will fail if the
+ version has not been published to the registry.
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install sax@0.1.1
+ npm install @myorg/privatepackage@1.5.0
+
+* `npm install [@<scope>/]<name>@<version range>`:
+
+ Install a version of the package matching the specified version range. This
+ will follow the same rules for resolving dependencies described in `package.json(5)`.
+
+ Note that most version ranges must be put in quotes so that your shell will
+ treat it as a single argument.
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install sax@">=0.1.0 <0.2.0"
+ npm install @myorg/privatepackage@">=0.1.0 <0.2.0"
+
+* `npm install <git remote url>`:
+
+ Install a package by cloning a git remote url. The format of the git
+ url is:
+
+ <protocol>://[<user>[:<password>]@]<hostname>[:<port>][:/]<path>[#<commit-ish>]
+
+ `<protocol>` is one of `git`, `git+ssh`, `git+http`, or
+ `git+https`. If no `<commit-ish>` is specified, then `master` is
+ used.
+
+ The following git environment variables are recognized by npm and will be added
+ to the environment when running git:
+
+ * `GIT_ASKPASS`
+ * `GIT_EXEC_PATH`
+ * `GIT_PROXY_COMMAND`
+ * `GIT_SSH`
+ * `GIT_SSH_COMMAND`
+ * `GIT_SSL_CAINFO`
+ * `GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY`
+
+ See the git man page for details.
+
+ Examples:
+
+ npm install git+ssh://git@github.com:npm/npm.git#v1.0.27
+ npm install git+https://isaacs@github.com/npm/npm.git
+ npm install git://github.com/npm/npm.git#v1.0.27
+ GIT_SSH_COMMAND='ssh -i ~/.ssh/custom_ident' npm install git+ssh://git@github.com:npm/npm.git
+
+* `npm install <githubname>/<githubrepo>[#<commit-ish>]`:
+* `npm install github:<githubname>/<githubrepo>[#<commit-ish>]`:
+
+ Install the package at `https://github.com/githubname/githubrepo` by
+ attempting to clone it using `git`.
+
+ If you don't specify a *commit-ish* then `master` will be used.
+
+ Examples:
+
+ npm install mygithubuser/myproject
+ npm install github:mygithubuser/myproject
+
+* `npm install gist:[<githubname>/]<gistID>[#<commit-ish>]`:
+
+ Install the package at `https://gist.github.com/gistID` by attempting to
+ clone it using `git`. The GitHub username associated with the gist is
+ optional and will not be saved in `package.json` if `--save` is used.
+
+ If you don't specify a *commit-ish* then `master` will be used.
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install gist:101a11beef
+
+* `npm install bitbucket:<bitbucketname>/<bitbucketrepo>[#<commit-ish>]`:
+
+ Install the package at `https://bitbucket.org/bitbucketname/bitbucketrepo`
+ by attempting to clone it using `git`.
+
+ If you don't specify a *commit-ish* then `master` will be used.
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install bitbucket:mybitbucketuser/myproject
+
+* `npm install gitlab:<gitlabname>/<gitlabrepo>[#<commit-ish>]`:
+
+ Install the package at `https://gitlab.com/gitlabname/gitlabrepo`
+ by attempting to clone it using `git`.
+
+ If you don't specify a *commit-ish* then `master` will be used.
+
+ Example:
+
+ npm install gitlab:mygitlabuser/myproject
+
+You may combine multiple arguments, and even multiple types of arguments.
+For example:
+
+ npm install sax@">=0.1.0 <0.2.0" bench supervisor
+
+The `--tag` argument will apply to all of the specified install targets. If a
+tag with the given name exists, the tagged version is preferred over newer
+versions.
+
+The `--force` argument will force npm to fetch remote resources even if a
+local copy exists on disk.
+
+ npm install sax --force
+
+The `--global` argument will cause npm to install the package globally
+rather than locally. See `npm-folders(5)`.
+
+The `--ignore-scripts` argument will cause npm to not execute any
+scripts defined in the package.json. See `npm-scripts(7)`.
+
+The `--link` argument will cause npm to link global installs into the
+local space in some cases.
+
+The `--no-bin-links` argument will prevent npm from creating symlinks for
+any binaries the package might contain.
+
+The `--no-optional` argument will prevent optional dependencies from
+being installed.
+
+The `--no-shrinkwrap` argument, which will ignore an available
+shrinkwrap file and use the package.json instead.
+
+The `--nodedir=/path/to/node/source` argument will allow npm to find the
+node source code so that npm can compile native modules.
+
+See `npm-config(7)`. Many of the configuration params have some
+effect on installation, since that's most of what npm does.
+
+## ALGORITHM
+
+To install a package, npm uses the following algorithm:
+
+ install(where, what, family, ancestors)
+ fetch what, unpack to <where>/node_modules/<what>
+ for each dep in what.dependencies
+ resolve dep to precise version
+ for each dep@version in what.dependencies
+ not in <where>/node_modules/<what>/node_modules/*
+ and not in <family>
+ add precise version deps to <family>
+ install(<where>/node_modules/<what>, dep, family)
+
+For this `package{dep}` structure: `A{B,C}, B{C}, C{D}`,
+this algorithm produces:
+
+ A
+ +-- B
+ `-- C
+ `-- D
+
+That is, the dependency from B to C is satisfied by the fact that A
+already caused C to be installed at a higher level.
+
+See npm-folders(5) for a more detailed description of the specific
+folder structures that npm creates.
+
+### Limitations of npm's Install Algorithm
+
+There are some very rare and pathological edge-cases where a cycle can
+cause npm to try to install a never-ending tree of packages. Here is
+the simplest case:
+
+ A -> B -> A' -> B' -> A -> B -> A' -> B' -> A -> ...
+
+where `A` is some version of a package, and `A'` is a different version
+of the same package. Because `B` depends on a different version of `A`
+than the one that is already in the tree, it must install a separate
+copy. The same is true of `A'`, which must install `B'`. Because `B'`
+depends on the original version of `A`, which has been overridden, the
+cycle falls into infinite regress.
+
+To avoid this situation, npm flat-out refuses to install any
+`name@version` that is already present anywhere in the tree of package
+folder ancestors. A more correct, but more complex, solution would be
+to symlink the existing version into the new location. If this ever
+affects a real use-case, it will be investigated.
+
+## SEE ALSO
+
+* npm-folders(5)
+* npm-update(1)
+* npm-link(1)
+* npm-rebuild(1)
+* npm-scripts(7)
+* npm-build(1)
+* npm-config(1)
+* npm-config(7)
+* npmrc(5)
+* npm-registry(7)
+* npm-tag(1)
+* npm-uninstall(1)
+* npm-shrinkwrap(1)
+* package.json(5)