Last Updated: October 23, 2016

Yarn vs NPM Commands Cheat Sheet

Markdown version of Medium post by Gant Laborde. Many thanks for his work writing the original post.

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Okay, so you’ve heard about this new JavaScript package manager called yarn, installed it with npm i -g yarn, and now you want to know how to use it? For the most part if you know NPM, you’re already set! Here are the key notes for switching.

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What you need to know

• npm install === yarn — Install is the default behavior.

• npm install taco --save === yarn add taco — The Taco package is saved to your package.json immediately.

• npm uninstall taco --save === yarn remove taco — —-save can be defaulted in NPM by npm config set save true but this is non-obvious to most developers. Adding and removing from package.json is default in Yarn.

• npm install taco --save-dev === yarn add taco --dev

• npm update --save === yarn upgrade — Great call on upgrade vs update, since that is exactly what it is doing! Version number moves, upgrade is happening! WARNING npm update --save seems to be kinda broken in 3.11

• npm install taco@latest --save === yarn add taco

• npm install taco --global === yarn global add taco — As always, use global flag with care.

What you already know about yarn

The packages are the same as on the NPM registry. Yarn is basically a new installer, where NPM structure and registry is the same.

• npm init === yarn init

• npm link === yarn link

• npm outdated === yarn outdated

• npm publish === yarn publish

• npm run === yarn run

• npm cache clean === yarn cache clean

• npm login === yarn login

• npm logout === yarn logout

• npm test === yarn test

Things yarn has that NPM doesn’t

I'm skipping the items that they warn against using like yarn clean

• yarn licenses ls — Allows you to inspect the licenses of your dependencies

• yarn licenses generate-disclaimer — Automatically create your license dependency disclaimer

• yarn why taco — Identify why 'taco' package is installed, detailing which other packages depend upon it

• ⬆️ Emojis

• Speed 🏃⚡

• Automatic shrinkwrap with the yarn lockfile

• Security-centric design

Things NPM has that yarn doesn’t

• npm xmas === NO EQUIVALENT

• npm visnup === NO EQUIVALENT

Useful Links

• 📓 Official Documentation - https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/

  • ⏩ Migrating From npm - https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/migrating-from-npm

• 🐦💬 Yarn on Twitter - https://twitter.com/yarnpkg

• Yarn on GitHub - https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn

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