Usually, while working on multiple projects we complain about the hard drive which is mystically always full.
Whenever we start a new project and run npm install, it downloads a bunch of javascript files in the node_modules folder and we don't care about this after we abandoned the project.
Even after knowing that we can delete it by right-clicking it.
I usually use the bash command which deletes the directories from the current working directory
find . -name 'node_modules' -type d -prune -exec rm -rf '{}' +
But the smartest way to get the job done is to run npx npkill
So, installation through npm is simple. Make sure you have installed node and npm and then run
npm i -g npkill
You can also use it without installing it by running
npx npkill
It easily finds and removes old and heavy node_modules folders
To know more information about npkill, you can visit the site here
I follow FireShip - a youtube channel where we get high quality code tutorials to help you build & ship your app faster, for a long time. So, I came across this video which really helped me.
Conclusion
👏👏 By coming this far I hope you can use this awesome npkill npm package. So, I suggest you give it a try on your project and enjoy it!
Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions and leave me a comment if you have any problems or questions.
Till then,
Keep on Hacking, Cheers
Top comments (20)
Not sure what is wrong with
rm -r node_modules
Nothing is wrong here. With your code, we can delete just within a project, but to delete all the node_modules from the device we can use about code. Thanks!
I recommend github.com/tbillington/kondo instead.
It's fast, is a single tiny executable (thanks, Rust), doesn't come with its own
node_modules
, and supports not onlynpm
projects.Didn't know about this. Thanks for sharing I will definitely try this :)
You literally just coped everything from this video, even the title. shame
youtube.com/watch?v=qOSH2pYg6m8
It's not wrong to convert a video to an article but he should have at least given some credit to the video :(
Doesn't npm intelligently link already-installed-elsewhere modules? If so, deleting node-modules folders might be detrimental.
Edit: whoops! I was wrong about this one, sorry gang. Maybe I got it confused with Yarn or some other package managers? If anyone knows more about this, that'd be awesome; I feel bad about having loads of copies of the same module at multiple locations on my system.
That's the first time I'm hearing this. To my knowledge, every npm project has its own node_modules directory and every package dependency is installed per project. Do you have a link that documents what you are suggesting?
This was my first time hearing this as well. I know that pnpm is meant to do so.
Your last suggestion of npx npkill is the easiest to use. Nothing to install.
I didn't use PowerShell. But it seems a Powershell statement. Right? :P
🤮
Check rimraf it is fast, and it is not limited to node_modules. It is written in JS so can be used in node projects
Whats is wrong with npm prune?
Can we run the command
npx npkill
from any directory or we must run from the root in order to delete all node_modules files from the device?Didn't know about this, thanks for sharing!
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