npm command-line interface

# npm-publish

Publish a package

## Table of contents

- Synopsis
- Description
- Files included in package
- See Also

### Synopsis

    npm publish [<tarball>|<folder>] [--tag <tag>] [--access <public|restricted>] [--otp otpcode] [--dry-run]

    Publishes '.' if no argument supplied
    Sets tag 'latest' if no --tag specified

### Description

Publishes a package to the registry so that it can be installed by name.

By default npm will publish to the public registry. This can be overridden by specifying a different default registry or using a `scope` in the name (see `package.json`).

- `<folder>`: A folder containing a package.json file

- `<tarball>`: A url or file path to a gzipped tar archive containing a single folder with a package.json file inside.

- `[--tag <tag>]`: Registers the published package with the given tag, such that `npm install <name>@<tag>` will install this version. By default, `npm publish` updates and `npm install` installs the `latest` tag. See `npm-dist-tag` for details about tags.

- `[--access <public|restricted>]`: Tells the registry whether this package should be published as public or restricted. Only applies to scoped packages, which default to `restricted`. If you don’t have a paid account, you must publish with `--access public` to publish scoped packages.

- `[--otp <otpcode>]`: If you have two-factor authentication enabled in `auth-and-writes` mode then you can provide a code from your authenticator with this. If you don’t include this and you’re running from a TTY then you’ll be prompted.

- `[--dry-run]`: As of `npm@6`, does everything publish would do except actually publishing to the registry. Reports the details of what would have been published.

The publish will fail if the package name and version combination already exists in the specified registry.

Once a package is published with a given name and version, that specific name and version combination can never be used again, even if it is removed with `npm unpublish`.

As of `npm@5`, both a sha1sum and an integrity field with a sha512sum of the tarball will be submitted to the registry during publication. Subsequent installs will use the strongest supported algorithm to verify downloads.

Similar to `--dry-run` see `npm pack`, which figures out the files to be included and packs them into a tarball to be uploaded to the registry.

### Files included in package

To see what will be included in your package, run `npx npm-packlist`. All files are included by default, with the following exceptions:

- Certain files that are relevant to package installation and distribution are always included. For example, `package.json`, `README.md`, `LICENSE`, and so on.

- If there is a “files” list in `package.json`, then only the files specified will be included. (If directories are specified, then they will be walked recursively and their contents included, subject to the same ignore rules.)

- If there is a `.gitignore` or `.npmignore` file, then ignored files in that and all child directories will be excluded from the package. If both files exist, then the `.gitignore` is ignored, and only the `.npmignore` is used.

  `.npmignore` files follow the same pattern rules as `.gitignore` files

- If the file matches certain patterns, then it will never be included, unless explicitly added to the `"files"` list in `package.json`, or un-ignored with a `!` rule in a `.npmignore` or `.gitignore` file.

- Symbolic links are never included in npm packages.

See `developers` for full details on what’s included in the published package, as well as details on how the package is built.

### See Also

- npm-packlist package
- npm registry
- npm scope
- npm adduser
- npm owner
- npm deprecate
- npm dist-tag
- npm pack
- npm profile