NPM vs Yarn Cheat Sheet

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.

👍 Feel free to bookmark this article, as it will update often as yarn grows.

Cheat Sheet — 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.jsonimmediately.
• npm uninstall taco --save === yarn remove taco
—-savecan 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.

You can use this to use yarn to update itself with yarn self-update

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• npm outdated === yarn outdated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 (and logout)
• npm test === yarn test
• npm install --production === yarn --production

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 (thanks Olivier Combe).
• ⬆️ Emojis
• Speed 🏃⌁
• Automatic shrinkwrap with the yarn lockfile
• Security-centric design
• yarn upgrade-interactive — Allows you to selectively upgrade specific packages in a simple way

Things NPM has that yarn doesn’t

• npm xmas === **NO EQUIVALENT**
• npm visnup === **NO EQUIVALENT**

MOAR!

Here’s a printable version of this cheat sheet, special thanks to Justin Huskey

https://infinite.red/files/yarn.pdf

Yarn spools worth reading:

• Yehuda Katz using Yarn — http://yehudakatz.com/2016/10/11/im-excited-to-work-on-yarn-the-new-js-package-manager-2/
• Facebook Announce — https://code.facebook.com/posts/1840075619545360
• News — http://thenextweb.com/dd/2016/10/12/facebook-launches-yarn-a-faster-npm-client/
• Benchmarking — https://www.berriart.com/blog/2016/10/npm-yarn-benchmark/

Continued education

• https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/
• https://twitter.com/yarnpkg
• https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn
• https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/migrating-from-npm

Misc

About Gant

Gant Laborde is Technical Lead at Infinite Red (⚙ web and mobile app dev ⚙), published author, adjunct professor, public speaker, and mad-scientist in training. Read the writings of Gant and his co-workers in our Red Shift publication. If you’re looking to discuss nerdy tech, he’s all ears. If you’ve got a conference tech, he’s happy to present.

View half-witty, half-groan technical tweets with @GantLaborde on Twitter, and follow him on Medium and GitHub.

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