Using npm

When you install Node.js from the official sources, you get a bit more than just Node.js. For convenience, Node.js will also add a few more programs and settings to your system. One of the most important additions is a tool called npm. Originally, npm was intended to stand for Node.js Package Manager, but today, it is essentially its own standalone name.

The goal of npm is to allow developers to manage third-party dependencies. This includes installing and updating packages, as well as handling their versioning and transitive dependencies. A transitive dependency is established when dependencies that are installed also include dependencies, which therefore need to be installed, too.

For npm to know what dependencies exist and what their dependencies are, the npm registry was created. It is a web service that hosts all packages on a file server.

Changing the used npm registry

Today, many npm registries exist – but only the official one located at https:...