[special]npm is the de facto JavaScript package manager and the npm registry the world's biggest collection of code. But sometimes you need that extra privacy when developing an awesome new package. Be it because you're working on a company project which is not meant to be shared with the public, your master/bachelor thesis project, or simply because you're like me and feel sometimes ashamed of your first steps with a new topic.[/special]
Whatever the reason might be, there are several options to choose from. Perhaps the easiest is to sign up with one of npm's commercial offers and you're good to go. But this comes at a price which might not suit every purse.
Fortunately, there is a free alternative called Verdaccio, which might help you out.
Introducing Verdaccio
Verdaccio is an npm package which allows you to create a local npm registry, without any configuration. It's a batteries included project, coming with its own database. It does so by acting as a local caching/proxy server.
This means whenever you try to install something from your custom repository that's not present, it will ping the official npm registry and download the dependencies. Your custom repository maintains those inside a simple folder called storage. The next subsequent install will now use this locally cached copy. On top of that, some commands from the npm client, such as npm login/adduser/publish are replicated to support the creation of local private packages, which you can see in use a little bit later in this article.
If you're thinking that's nothing new, there is already Sinopia you are right. Verdaccio is simply a fork of Sinopia which maintains backward compatibility, yet tries to keep up with official npm changes. One such change, which is unavailable in Sinopia, is scoped packages, which you might have already seen when working with libraries like Angular 2 or TypeScript npm hosted types. You can easily recognize them by the leading @ sign:
Both Sinopia and Verdaccio work on Mac/Linux and Windows.
Getting Started with Verdaccio
Since Verdaccio is an npm package, all you need to do is run the following command to install it:
A subsequent call with verdaccio will fire up the instance and get your private registry running.
By default, it will listen on the port 4873. We will talk later about how you can change those settings.
In this article we're going through setting up the registry on your development machine. In a company environment, you'll likely want to do that on a dedicated server so that all developers can have access to it.
Verdaccio is a Node.js application, which means you should take care about restarting it in the event of occasional crashes. I recommend using pm2. All you'd need is to run the following steps:
Also, if by the end of the article you come to the conclusion that Verdaccio is not the right tool for you, just stop the process and uninstall Verdaccio with:
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