Creating package.json

• Managing numerous downloaded packages can become difficult.
• Therefore, a package.json file is created for each project to manage package lists and versions.

It is recommended to create package.json immediately after creating a project and start from there.

• Command: npm init

1. Enter information such as the package name. Unnecessary items can be skipped by pressing Enter.
2. At the end, type 'yes' for the "Is this OK?" prompt.

• If the file is created successfully, the following three files and folders will be generated.

However, if no external packages have been installed yet (initial state), the node_modules folder and package-lock.json file may not be created.

1. package.json file #

• Installed packages are managed under the dependencies section.

{
  "name" : "node.package",
  "version" : "1.0.0",
  "description" : "my node package",
  "main" : "index.js",

  "scripts" : {
    "test" : "echo / Error: no test specifed\ && exit 1 "
  },
  "dependencise" : {
    "socket.io" : "^4.1.2"
  }
}

node_modules folder #

• This is the folder where installed packages are actually stored.
• Other packages that the installed package depends on are also stored here when installed.

package-lock.json file #

• It manages all installed packages + their dependencies.