Question

I’m trying to install the dependencies of some example: npm’s express 2.5.8 that I’ve downloaded, but all of the apps throw the same error:

c:\node\stylus>npm install -d
npm info it worked if it ends with ok
npm info using npm@1.1.1
npm info using node@v0.6.11
npm ERR! Couldn't read dependencies.

npm ERR! Error: ENOENT, no such file or directory 'c:\node\stylus\package.json'
npm ERR! You may report this log at:
npm ERR!     <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues>
npm ERR! or email it to:
npm ERR!     <[e-mail]>
npm ERR!
npm ERR! System Windows_NT 6.1.7600
npm ERR! command "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\nodejs\\\\node.exe" "C:\\Program File
s (x86)\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "install" "-d"
npm ERR! cwd c:\node\stylus
npm ERR! node -v v0.6.11
npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.1
npm ERR! path c:\node\stylus\package.json
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! message ENOENT, no such file or directory 'c:\node\stylus\package.json'

npm ERR! errno {}
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     c:\node\stylus\npm-debug.log
npm not ok

The blockage appears to be:

no such file or directory ‘c:\node\stylus\package.json

Did I miss a step that creates the package.json ?

I’m running:

• Windows 7 64 bit
• npm 1.1.1
• node 6.11
• express 2.5.8

Answer 1

In your project’s folder, you need to initialize the package.json file by running the following in the terminal:

npm init

After that, you should be able to install any packages as you would expect, like express:

npm install express

Shout out to Deepali’s answer.