npm vs npx

npm — Node Package Manager

npx — Node Package Execute

If you are familiar with node, then definitely you have heard of npm and npx. Both npm and npx are Command Line Interface tools which basically helps while working with packages in our node projects.

Through this article I am willing to give you a brief idea on what npm and npx is.

NOTE: Apart from CLI tool, npm has the world’s largest software registry.

Now, let’s see what npm and npx are.

npm is the default package manager in node platform. All the required packages of the project are installed using npm.

In order to execute a package using npm, the package should be define in package.json file in the project.

For example, lets assume we need to create the boilerplate for a react project.

You can see when using npm we have to install the package and execute it separately.

npx is a npm package runner that is been pre-bundled with npm since version 5.2.0.

npx is basically used to execute packages in the npm registry. Importantly, it has the ability to execute npm packages that are not already installed in the project. Unlike npm, using a single npx command we can install a package and execute it easily.

Lets try to run the above example using npx.

Using npx it will install the package, execute and generate the boilerplate in a single step.

In conclusion I hope you got a brief idea on a key difference of npm and npx.

Thank you all for spending your time on reading my article.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this article, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.

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