til/javascript/open-global-npm-config-file.md

Open Global npm Config File

There are a ton of configuration settings for npm. I can open up the global npmrc file where those configs live with the following command:

$ npm config edit --global

This will open up the file in my default editor (e.g. vim).

There are over 100 settings that are commented out with their default values. I can override these as needed by uncommenting them and setting them to the desired value.

There is some useful info in the first few lines:

;;;;
; npm globalconfig file: /Users/me/.asdf/installs/nodejs/20.10.0/etc/npmrc
; this is a simple ini-formatted file
; lines that start with semi-colons are comments
; run `npm help 7 config` for documentation of the various options

1. I can see that the location of the file is specific to the version of node that I current have shimmed. In this case, it's 20.10.0. If I switch node versions, there will be a different envrc to configure.

2. I can get more info about these config values by running npm help 7 config.