What does npm -D flag mean?

Question

I am about to install this npm package and it says npm install -D load-grunt-config. What does the -D flag do?

Sorry for duplicate question, stackoverflow.com/questions/8783230/… has answer, however the comments are much more inline, I guess because they were made by developers that knew the answer and had been through the same. — simplesthing, Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 1:18
you can find the answer here stackoverflow.com/a/60538593/8134164 — INDRAJITH EKANAYAKE, Commented Mar 5, 2020 at 5:36
Does this answer your question? What is the "-d" in "npm -d install"? — INDRAJITH EKANAYAKE, Commented Mar 5, 2020 at 5:37

Jaime Gomez · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-27 05:18:52Z

338

The -D flag is the shortcut for: --save-dev. Source: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/install

-D, --save-dev: Package will appear in your devDependencies.

Jaime Gomez

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answered Apr 20, 2014 at 1:22

sagunms

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62

So, what does it do?
– Kevin
Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 14:22
@kevin: stackoverflow.com/questions/19223051/…
– spb
Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 18:48
3

For me, the -D flag will not update package.json, forcing me to use --save-dev instead. Crazy as usual :(
– Agustin Garzon
Commented Oct 27, 2017 at 14:44
1

@Kevin That's another topic isn't it?
– Hiro
Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 4:44
5

@Hiro, OP wrote "what does the -D flag do?"
– Ali Pardhan
Commented Aug 25, 2020 at 1:26

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Arian Acosta · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-22 15:29:37Z

42

As described in the NPM Install Docs:

-D, --save-dev: Package will appear in your devDependencies.

Which means that the package will not be installed if you do npm install --production.

A detailed explanation of the different types of dependencies: SO-Answer

Arian Acosta

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answered Jan 6, 2019 at 19:05

Joniras

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2

Adding to this, the equivalent using yarn is yarn add <package...> [--dev/-D]
– Arian Acosta
Commented Aug 22, 2019 at 15:30

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2 Answers 2