How to install PNPM on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

PNPM is an efficient alternative to NPM and Yarn package managers for Node.js packages, which works differently than them to manage modules. In this article, we learn how to install PNPM on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 Linux systems.

What is the PNPM Nodejs, package manager?

PNPM stands for “Performant npm” and it aims to improve the performance and disk space usage of traditional Nodejs package managers by using shared content-addressable storage for package files across projects. In other words, instead of installing multiple copies of the same package in different projects, PNPM stores a single copy of each version of a package on the file system and then links it to the different projects that require it.

This approach can lead to significant disk space savings and faster installation times, especially when working with large projects or multiple projects that depend on the same packages. Furthermore, the PNPM Node.js package manager to prevent version conflicts has a centralized lock file to support multiple package versions installed at the same time. PNPM also creates non-flat node_modules by default, so the code has no access to arbitrary packages.

Hence, PNPM is worth trying if you are NodejS developers who want a fast and efficient package manager that can handle large-scale projects with multiple dependencies.

PNPM Nodejs pacakge manager installation in Ubuntu

The commands given here are not just limited to Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 Linux instead the newer versions of the OS including Debian, Linux Mint, POP Os, MX Linux, and similar distro users can follow them.

1. Start with a system update

Use the Ubuntu command terminal, if you are not a CLI server user then you can run the terminal app using Ctrl+ALT+T or from the Application menu by searching for it.

sudo apt update

Also, install CURL:

sudo apt install curl -y

2. Add NodeJS Repository

If your Ubuntu system already has Nodejs installed then you can move to next for the PNPM installation, however, for those who don’t have it, go for the given commands.

Although we already have the node.js to install on Ubuntu using its default base repo, however, the version will be old. Hence, those who want to get the latest and current version of Node need to add the official Node.js repository manually on Ubuntu Linux.

There are two types of Nodejs releases one is current and the other long-term supported. As per your choice go for the given repository.

Note: Use only one of them.

For the latest current version:

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_current.x | sudo -E bash -

For LTS- Long Term Supported version use this repo instead above one:

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_lts.x | sudo -E bash -

Here to perform this tutorial we are using the LTS version of NodeJS.

3. Install NodeJS

After adding the repository, we can use the default system package manager that is APT to install the current or LTS version of Nodejs Javascript.

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

3. Install PNPM on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 for NodeJS

The next task of our to complete this tutorial is to install PNPM on Ubuntu Linux. We already have NodeJS along with NPM but if you don’t want to use NPM to manage libraries and modules for your Nodejs project then simply use the given command. It uses CURL to fetch the official script made by the developers of the PNPM package manager to easily install it on Linux distros.

curl -fsSL https://get.pnpm.io/install.sh | sh -

Wait for a few seconds and the PNMP will be on your system. Once the process is done, source your bashrc file so that the system can recognize the path added to it by the above command.

source ~/.bashrc

4. Check PNPM Version

Now, let’s confirm this NodeJs package manager is on our Ubuntu Linux system and working fine, check its version.

pnpm --version

Also, further, just like NPM, we can use it to install packages, for example:

pnpm add curl

5. Examples of PNPM commands

Here are some examples of command syntax that can be used to work with the PNPM package manager for Nodejs projects.

Note: Replace <package-name> with the package you want to install using PNPM

Install packages:

pnpm add <package-name>

Install packages as development dependencies:

pnpm add --save-dev <package-name>

Install packages globally:

pnpm add -g  <package-name>

Uninstall pnpm packages:

pnpm uninstall <package-name>

Update pnpm packages:

pnpm update <package-name>

Install packages from a lockfile:

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

List installed pnpm packages:

pnpm ls

Search for packages:

pnpm search <package-name>

Run a script defined in package.json:

pnpm run <script-name>

Clean pnpm cache:

pnpm store prune

These are just a few examples of PNPM commands. For more commands and their detailed information visit the official documentation.

6. Update to latest

To upgrade the PNPM to its latest available version, simply run the same script you have used to install it.

curl -fsSL https://get.pnpm.io/install.sh | sh -

7. Uninstall PNPM

Well, there might be chances that you still prefer NPM over PNPM, then you surely want to remove PNPM from your Ubuntu Linux, if that is so, here is the command to follow:

Remove its folder

rm -r ~/.local/share/pnpm

If you also want to remove the modules or libraries installed by PNPM then run:

rm -r ~/node_modules

To remove it from your system path, edit the Bashrc file and remove the following code.

nano ~/bashrc

Scroll down and find the given line. Delete it and save the file using Ctrl+X, pressing Y to confirm, and then hit Enter key to exit.

# pnpm

export PNPM_HOME="/home/h2s/.local/share/pnpm"

case ":$PATH:" in

  *":$PNPM_HOME:"*) ;;

  *) export PATH="$PNPM_HOME:$PATH" ;;

esac

# pnpm end

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