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25 Essential Yarn Commands for Effective Package Management

Yarn, a popular package manager for JavaScript, plays a vital role in managing and installing packages and dependencies. Understanding its commands is crucial for any JavaScript developer. This post lists 25 commonly used Yarn commands and provides code examples.


1. yarn add

Purpose: Installs a package from the npm registry or a local directory.

Syntax:

yarn add <package name>

Example:

$ yarn add express


2. yarn remove

Purpose: Uninstalls a package.

Syntax:

yarn remove <package name>

Example:

$ yarn remove express


3. yarn upgrade

Purpose: Upgrades all installed packages to their latest versions.

Syntax:

yarn upgrade

Example:

$ yarn upgrade


4. yarn outdated

Purpose: Lists outdated installed packages.

Syntax:

yarn outdated

Example:


$ yarn outdated

Package         Current   Wanted  Latest

express         4.17.3    5.0.0    5.0.0

body-parser     1.19.1    2.0.0    2.0.0


5. yarn audit

Purpose: Checks for security vulnerabilities in installed packages.

Syntax:

yarn audit

Example:

$ yarn audit


6. yarn run

Purpose: Runs a script defined in the package.json file.

Syntax:

yarn run <script name>

Example:

$ yarn run start


7. yarn start

Purpose: Runs the default script specified in the package.json file, typically used to start the application.

Syntax:

yarn start

Example:

$ yarn start


8. yarn test

Purpose: Runs the test script specified in the package.json file, typically used to run unit tests.

Syntax:

yarn test

Example:

$ yarn test


9. yarn publish

Purpose: Publishes a package to the npm registry.

Syntax:

yarn publish

Example:

$ yarn publish


10. yarn link

Purpose: Creates a symlink between a local package and the global node_modules directory.

Syntax:

yarn link <package name>

Example:

$ yarn link my-package


11. yarn unlink

Purpose: Removes a symlink created by yarn link.

Syntax:

yarn unlink <package name>

Example:

$ yarn unlink my-package


12. yarn list

Purpose: Lists installed packages.

Syntax:

yarn list

Example:


$ yarn list

├─┬ express@5.0.0

│ └── accepts@~1.3.8

├─┬ body-parser@2.0.0

│ ├── bytes@3.1.2

│ ├── content-type@~1.0.4

│ ├── debug@2.6.9

...


13. yarn search

Purpose: Searches for packages on the npm registry.

Syntax:

yarn search <package name>

Example:

$ yarn search react


14. yarn view

Purpose: Displays information about a package, such as its description, author, and dependencies.

Syntax:

yarn view <package name>

Example:

$ yarn view express


15. yarn global add

Purpose: Installs a package globally, making it available to all projects on your system.

Syntax:

yarn global add <package name>

Example:

$ yarn global add create-react-app


16. yarn global remove

Purpose: Uninstalls a globally installed package.

Syntax:

yarn global remove <package name>

Example:

$ yarn global remove create-react-app


17. yarn config

Purpose: Gets or sets Yarn configuration options.

Syntax:

yarn config [<key>] [<value>]

Example:


$ yarn config get registry

https://registry.yarnpkg.com/


18. yarn cache clean

Purpose: Clears the Yarn cache.

Syntax:

yarn cache clean

Example:

$ yarn cache clean


19. yarn dedupe

Purpose: Removes duplicate packages and their dependencies from the node_modules directory.

Syntax:

yarn dedupe

Example:

$ yarn dedupe


20. yarn init

Purpose: Initializes a new Yarn project by creating a package.json file.

Syntax:

yarn init

Example:

$ yarn init


21. yarn install --check-files

Purpose: Checks if the installed packages match the versions specified in the package.json file.

Syntax:

yarn install --check-files

Example:

$ yarn install --check-files


22. yarn install --ignore-scripts

Purpose: Installs packages without running preinstall or postinstall scripts.

Syntax:

yarn install --ignore-scripts

Example:

$ yarn install --ignore-scripts


23. yarn install --offline

Purpose: Installs packages from the cache without connecting to the npm registry.

Syntax:

yarn install --offline

Example:

$ yarn install --offline


24. yarn berry

Purpose: Uses Yarn Berry, the next-generation version of Yarn.

Syntax:

yarn berry

Example:

$ yarn berry


25. yarn help

Purpose: Displays help information for a specific command or Yarn in general.

Syntax:

yarn help <command>

Example:

$ yarn help install


Conclusion

Mastering these 25 Yarn commands will empower you to effectively manage JavaScript packages and dependencies. By leveraging these commands, you can install and update packages, resolve vulnerabilities, publish your own packages, and streamline your development workflow. Remember to experiment with these commands and familiarize yourself with their options and capabilities.

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