Disable the package-lock.json file

With NPM 5, npm has started to create a “package-lock.json” file. It ensures that some dependency tree is identical on every developer’s environment. Official Documentation.

Now, that may be important on some projects. In my personal projects, I do not really care. And in the professional projects, I did not have any issues how things were done before.

Actually, with the new way of doing things, you must first remove the package-lock.json file and then run “npm update” to install newer versions of stuff. Then again, this can cause problems as when some other person also creates the package-lock file, or a merge conflict occurs etc. In the end, totally defeating the purpose of the file.

Disabling the Package Lock File for a Project

1. Create a file called .npmrc
2. Open the file and add the line package-lock=false

Global Disable

If you currently want to disable the behavior on all projects run

npm config set package-lock false

In the future, the feature may be more easy to use. For now, I at least will stick to the old way of how to do things.

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