section: cli-commands title: npm-run-script
npm run-script <command> [--silent] [-- <args>...]
alias: npm run
This runs an arbitrary command from a package's "scripts"
object. If no
"command"
is provided, it will list the available scripts. run[-script]
is
used by the test, start, restart, and stop commands, but can be called
directly, as well. When the scripts in the package are printed out, they're
separated into lifecycle (test, start, restart) and directly-run scripts.
As of npm@2.0.0
, you can
use custom arguments when executing scripts. The special option --
is used by
getopt to delimit the end of the options. npm will pass
all the arguments after the --
directly to your script:
npm run test -- --grep="pattern"
The arguments will only be passed to the script specified after npm run
and not to any pre or post script.
The env
script is a special built-in command that can be used to list
environment variables that will be available to the script at runtime. If an
"env" command is defined in your package, it will take precedence over the
built-in.
In addition to the shell's pre-existing PATH
, npm run
adds
node_modules/.bin
to the PATH
provided to scripts. Any binaries provided by
locally-installed dependencies can be used without the node_modules/.bin
prefix. For example, if there is a devDependency
on tap
in your package,
you should write:
"scripts": {"test": "tap test/\*.js"}
instead of
"scripts": {"test": "node_modules/.bin/tap test/\*.js"}
to run your tests.
The actual shell your script is run within is platform dependent. By default,
on Unix-like systems it is the /bin/sh
command, on Windows it is the cmd.exe
.
The actual shell referred to by /bin/sh
also depends on the system.
As of npm@5.1.0
you can
customize the shell with the script-shell
configuration.
Scripts are run from the root of the module, regardless of what your current
working directory is when you call npm run
. If you want your script to
use different behavior based on what subdirectory you're in, you can use the
INIT_CWD
environment variable, which holds the full path you were in when
you ran npm run
.
npm run
sets the NODE
environment variable to the node
executable with
which npm
is executed. Also, if the --scripts-prepend-node-path
is passed,
the directory within which node
resides is added to the
PATH
. If --scripts-prepend-node-path=auto
is passed (which has been the
default in npm
v3), this is only performed when that node
executable is
not found in the PATH
.
If you try to run a script without having a node_modules
directory and it fails,
you will be given a warning to run npm install
, just in case you've forgotten.
You can use the --silent
flag to prevent showing npm ERR!
output on error.
You can use the --if-present
flag to avoid exiting with a non-zero exit code
when the script is undefined. This lets you run potentially undefined scripts
without breaking the execution chain.