Possible to set the global install path

[fortes]

This is a feature (or perhaps documentation request).

When I run the following:

yarn global add create-react-app

Yarn will try to symlink into /usr/bin which requires sudo. With NPM, I've set my global packages to install into a user directory that is then added to my $PATH.

Is it possible to set a global directory via config somehow?

I've tried the following to no avail:

yarn add create-react-app -g --global-folder ~/bin (installs into ~/node_modules)
yarn global add create-react-app --global-folder ~/bin (still goes for /usr/bin)

This is all running on Debian 8.5

[sebmck]

It's not currently supported but we can definently add an option.

[theduke]

This is a really important feature and a must have IMO.

So +1.

[ef4]

If you install node to a user-owned location and set your own PATH, this already appears to work.

I always unpack node to a place like ~/Library/node-v6.7.0-darwin-x64, symlink that to ~/Library/node, and then add ~/Library/node/bin to PATH. Under those conditions, yarn correctly puts globals in the same place npm does, and sudo is not required.

[kylecordes]

This feature is very helpful for people who are unable to (or merely inclined against) running package installation operations, which sometimes download and execute staggering amounts of code of questionable provenance, as root.

[ljharb]

The npm option here is --prefix, so although it's very not recommended to use it, it'd be good to keep the same terminology.

[markrian]

Rather than pass an option to npm, I have prefix=${HOME}/.local in my ~/.npmrc. It'd be great if yarn respected that (and other config settings), so that it could a true drop-in replacement for npm.

[victornoel]

Notice that you can already add ~/.yarn-cache/.global/node_modules/.bin/ (aka what is outputed by yarn global bin) to your PATH, the only problem is the linking to /usr/bin that should be easy to disable!

[vitorgalvao]

Notice that you can already add (…) to your PATH

Instead of adding another directory to my PATH (which then means I’d have to do so in every other tool as well) I’d rather be able to set an option to link the binaries to wherever I want at install time.

[sandys]

is this going to be fixed or is this a wont fix. its seems to be one of the most requested bugs.

related ones: #1389, #1388, #1321, #1226, #1194, #1151, #1060, #1029, #927 (comment), #630, #1370

[dheerajbhaskar]

#1600 might also be related