How can I change the cache path for npm (or completely disable the cache) on Windows?

I've installed Node.js on my Windows 7 x64 development machine, the manual way:

mkdir C:\Devel\nodejs
cd C:\Devel\nodejs
set NODE_PATH=%CD%
setx /M PATH "%PATH%;%NODE_PATH%"
setx /M NODE_PATH "%NODE_PATH%\node_modules"

I've placed the main node x64 binary along with npm package manager in C:\Devel\nodejs. Works like a charm and I can update the main binary without dealing with the installer.

The only problem I can't solve is moving the cache folder. When I install a local package:

npm install express

... cache is placed under %APP_DATA%\npm-cache folder. I'd like to change it to:

C:\Devel\nodejs\npm-cache

How can I change the npm cache folder, or disable it completely?

You can change npm cache folder using the npm command line. (see https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v6/using-npm/config#cache)

So you might want to try this command :

> npm config set cache C:\Devel\nodejs\npm-cache --global 

You can also set an environment variable with export npm_config_cache=/path/to/cache (Unix) or set npm_config_cache=C:\path\to\cache (Win) as an alternative to npm config set (this is true for all config options in npm).

---

For anyone using docker you can add the env var at runtime with:

docker run -e npm_config_cache=/path/to/cache mydockerimage:tag

You can also do following:

For having cache path as you wish, for a single package while installing it:

npm install packageName --cache path/to/some/folder

For having cache path as you wish, for all the packages in package.json:

Just be in the directory where package.json is as usual and do

npm install --cache path/to/some/folder

You may not find this in npm documentation but i have tried it with npm 6 and it works. Looks like it works since npm 5 [Refer: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44310188/how-to-specify-cache-folder-in-npm5-on-install-command]

In Windows you can simply cd to the desired cache folder and do npm set cache --global

In addition, I found that running an update command works also - for example:

npm update npm

Lastly, one can check their npm-cache directory to see if is being filled or not.

Solution

Paste the following code into npmrc file.

Location of npmrc file: C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\npmrc

prefix=D:\nodejs\npm
cache=D:\nodejs\npm-cache

Notes: There is no '.' in front of npmrc

Diagrams

NPMRC file folder look like this

NPMRC Content look like this

Hope it helps. Cheers