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JavaScript

Posted by Isabelle Caspersson
Isabelle Caspersson
6,679 Points

Installing homebrew, npm and node - where do I find them on computer?

Hi! I am new to packages and just want to be sure on what's going here... I installed homebrew, npm and node at my mac with the terminal following this guide: https://treehouse.github.io/installation-guides/mac/node-mac.html

Is homebrew, npm and node saved just as files in finder? Or are they programs that should be among applications? For example I can't see home brew anywhere except when I used it in the terminal.

When I search for npm on my computer I find 2 files called node_modules. One in the file flashcards and one in the file Debug node Applications with VS code (both are downloaded from courses at treehouse). Is this the npm-package? Why is it at 2 places? Since I am done with these courses I want to delete those files - is that "ok"?

Bonus question: I installed Xcode because I read had to have that for installing the other stuff... and it is saved as a program. But I am not sure on when or how to use Xcode?

1 Answer

KRIS NIKOLAISEN
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
54,971 Points
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
54,971 Points

To locate homebrew, npm and node try the which command in terminal. For example I used which brew and found

kris$ which brew
/usr/local/bin/brew

which is an alias for 

/usr/local/Homebrew/bin/brew

Here is the npm doc for folder use and the npm doc for install. For local installs packages are installed in the node_modules folder in the project folder. So each project will have its own local node_modules folder. You should be able to delete the project folder if no longer needed.

Files installed with Xcode are used by other applications. You don't have to learn or use Xcode yourself.