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`npm link` inside a monorepo adds the dependency always to the root

I have a mono repo and want to link a component library inside a package which contains this library as a dependency. But as we control this library and make changes, I want to be able to test it locally.
cd <library_path>
npm link
cd <monorepo_path>
npm link --workspace <target_package> <library>
When I execute find: find -name '<library>' I can find the library in the <target_package> node_modules directory as well as in the roots node_modules directory, which means the one in the <target_package> will take precedence, but this is the published one, not the linked one. The linked one lives in the root.
When I install my node_modules without linking the package, the library lives only inside the root node_modules.
I tried several things without success.
How can I override the workspace dependency temporarily to use the local library from npm link?
EDIT:
I found a temporary workaround in our webpack configuration with hardcoding which path to use for this dependency.
However, this is not a satisfying solution in my opinion.

How to reduce Node.js app size (or build it)

I built a small Node.js app and I want to put it on GitHub but the problem is node_modules is so large. Is there is any way to build the app and make it small?

To store you project on GitHub without node_modules you need to create a .gitignore in the root of your porject (beside the package.json file) and add node_modules entry to it.
The structure should look like this:
/project
...
package.json
.gitignore
package-lock.json // should NOT be added to the gitignore
And .gitignore should look look like this
node_modules
After that you need to push this .gitignore file to the remote repo (in your case to the GitHub).
By doing this you tell git to not track files which are inside the node_modules folder.
After pulling your project from remote (from GitHub) you will be able to get your modules back by using npm install which will install your dependencies inside node_modules folder.

Linking local library into Angular 5 Project

What i want is to have a library locally that when i change it those changes are reflected in the project that is using the library.
i have check out this library here in my local machine: https://github.com/manfredsteyer/angular-oauth2-oidc
So what i'm doing right now, is that i go to the library directory and then
npm link
And then get in my project directory and do
npm link angular-oauth2-oidc
The library folder appears inside my node_modules folder but i can't manage to use it, since when i start the app ng serve it says:
Cannot find module 'angular-oauth2-oidc'
I'm importing like this:
import { OAuthModule } from 'angular-oauth2-oidc';
I've tried to add the the path under the compilerOptions of the tsconfig.json file but haven't been sucessful.
Any ideas on what i'm missing here? I've tried several suggestions i've found on angular github issues but none solved my problem.
Thanks in advance

npm link in a package folder will create a symlink in the global folder {prefix}/lib/node_modules/ that links to the package where the npm link command was executed
Dont use npm link to add a library to your project, use npm install :
npm install angular-oauth2-oidc --save

You have to install it not just link it, so use this line to with flag --save to ensure that it will be saved in your package.json
npm install [package_name] --save
You can get the package name from the source website or from
https://www.npmjs.com/package/angular2

When you say:
So what i'm doing right now, is that i go to the library directory and
then npm link
Do you mean you are executing npm link in the folder you cloned the repository in? Because if so, that's likely your issue as that's the source directory and not what's actually published as a package. You must build the library, change directory into the distribution folder for the package, and then run npm link. Then when you run builds of that library, any Angular applications with that linked will automatically have the last version of your build in their node_modules.
Also, in your Angular applications where you are using the linked library you'll want to make sure you are setting preserveSymlinks to true in your angular.json.

While you can create multiple projects (e.g. an Angular app and an Angular library) under one Angular project to make this process a bit easier, I prefer to separating these two since I like one git repository to present one module.
First, you need to link your modules to your project's package.json file. Here's how to link files locally in general:
Local dependency in package.json
Linking a plain Typescript library is pretty straight forward as you just create an entry point (usually index.ts) file and export everything you want from there. This file needs to be in the same folder as the package.json file in your project.
An Angular library is a bit different as angular modules needs to be compiled before it can be properly exported. If you just import the module to your project without compiling you will get an error stating this: cannot read property 'ɵmod'. This happens at least at the time of writing this.
So we need to compile the library and then link it:
open two terminal windows
in the first terminal, go to your Angular library's root folder and run ng build --watch
check the output folder of the compiled module, usually something like dist/[library name]
change your Angular project's package.json to point to the output folder e.g. "my-angular-library": "file:../my-angular-library/dist/my-angular-library"
run npm install in the same folder
Add path to your Angular project's tsconfig.json e.g:
compilerOptions: {
"paths": {
"my-angular-library": ["./node_modules/my-angular-library"]
}
}
Otherwise you'll get errors like Error: Symbol MyComponent declared in /path/to/library/my.component.d.ts is not exported from my-angular-library
in the second terminal, go to your Angular project's root folder and run ng serve. Make sure you serve the project only after you have installed the local dependency.
You should now be able to use components, services etc. exported via your library module.
TL;DR
for the library ng build --watch
make the library dependency to point to the output folder e.g. "my-angular-library": "file:../my-angular-library/dist/my-angular-library"
npm i
Add path to your Angular project's tsconfig.json e.g:
compilerOptions: {
"paths": {
"my-angular-library": ["./node_modules/my-angular-library"]
}
}
ng serve

Where should I put bower.json?

So, I'm using bower 1.2.2 to manage my client side libraries for the first time. My app is a simple node app, and I can't decide where to initialize bower. Here's my file structure:
|____gruntfile.js
|____package.json
|____server.js
|____static
| |____index.html
Should I initialize bower in the root next to gruntfile.js and package.json, or should I do it in my static directory. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

IMHO you can have that on the root where other tasks files are added. This way your bower_components will also reside on the root folder along with node_modules.

NPM Pack / Nodejitsu ignores buried Node_modules folders

It seems that NPM pack, and by extension, nodejitsu, do not like my node_modules folders. :*(
I currently am building a web app.
My web app's project folder structure is as follows:
Root
Engine(folder) Server(folder) readme.md package.json
(Multiple Folders) (folder)(folder) node_modules(folder)
easyimage,mongodb,mysql(folders) socket.io (folder)
node_modules(folder, NPM Pack ignores this) node_modules(folder, NPM Pack ignores this)
Socket.io-client (folder, NPM Pack ignores this)
I hope everyone can see this structure alright!
The problem I am having is that when I run NPM Pack at the root directory, the entire directory structure is packed correctly, except for all of the node_modules folders below the first node_modules folder.
It is as if NPM pack completely ignores those node_modules folders. (The one below socket.io for instance).
Due to the fact NPM pack ignores these npm folders, jitsu is also ignoring them and I can't get my web app started.
How can I get NPM pack/nodejitsu to correctly package all of the node_modules folders correctly?
My current package.json file, at the root directory, looks like follows:
http://pastebin.com/SAU6rwb5
As you can see, I have attempted to use bundleDependencies to tell NPM Pack that I am trying to include some node_modules folders (modules?), but pack still ignores all of them... Also, if i include anything under "dependencies", NPM start creates a new (??) node_modules folder at the root directory... but at the root directory nothing needs node_modules... as you can see node_modules are used inside of the server folder.
How can I get NPM Pack to recognize the files and folders inside of all of the node_modules folders and pack them correctly?

(jump to last paragraph if you want a really easy solution)
I'm having a hard time understanding your app structure. I think I get what your trying to do though.
From https://npmjs.org/doc/folders.html , it actually goes into detail about when and why sub modules will or wont show up.
When installing locally, npm first tries to find an appropriate prefix folder. This is so that npm install foo#1.2.3 will install to the sensible root of your package, even if you happen to have cded into some other folder.
Starting at the $PWD, npm will walk up the folder tree checking for a folder that contains either a package.json file, or a node_modules folder. If such a thing is found, then that is treated as the effective "current directory" for the purpose of running npm commands. (This behavior is inspired by and similar to git's .git-folder seeking logic when running git commands in a working dir.)
If no package root is found, then the current folder is used.
When you run npm install foo#1.2.3, then the package is loaded into the cache, and then unpacked into ./node_modules/foo. Then, any of foo's dependencies are similarly unpacked into ./node_modules/foo/node_modules/....
Bear With me for another quote...
Cycles are handled using the property of node's module system that it walks up the directories looking for node_modules folders. So, at every stage, if a package is already installed in an ancestor node_modules folder, then it is not installed at the current location.
Consider the case above, where foo -> bar -> baz. Imagine if, in addition to that, baz depended on bar, so you'd have: foo -> bar -> baz -> bar -> baz .... However, since the folder structure is: foo/node_modules/bar/node_modules/baz, there's no need to put another copy of bar into .../baz/node_modules, since when it calls require("bar"), it will get the copy that is installed in foo/node_modules/bar.
This shortcut is only used if the exact same version would be installed in multiple nested node_modules folders. It is still possible to have a/node_modules/b/node_modules/a if the two "a" packages are different versions. However, without repeating the exact same package multiple times, an infinite regress will always be prevented.
As far as the bundledDependencies:
Upon publishing [this also applies to packing], npm will look in the node_modules folder. If any of the items there are not in the bundledDependencies array, then they will not be included in the package tarball.
I take this to mean that it will only bundle the listed modules in ./node_modules/ and specific sub-modules for a ./package.json . Then of course as written above, it recursively walks down the directory tree again... so if it sees another package.json file in this directory npm will look and see if that has any bundled deps to include in the pack.
So as I understand it right now, since you have no packages in your base directory, your bundled dependencies in package.json doesn't do anything, and actually having items in your bundledDependencies field does more harm than good.
To fix you need to edit the package.json files to include these bundles at each level.
I have had this issue before when trying to get a packed then unpacked meteor app working on nodejitsu. I solved it in a different way. In the root folder of my app I included all of the top level node modules and explicitly set their version in my package.json file.
From what I understand your file structure is such:
app
+-- Engine
+-- Server
| +-- socket.io
| | `-- package.json
| | +-- node_modules
`-- readme.md
`-- package.json
If this is so then you need to be editing the package.json under socket.io to include the bundled deps you want. Generally though you can trust the package maintainers to keep valid versions.(but in this case you can't?)
As for Socket.io-client not being packed that's a result of it being a dependency of socket.io.
If I was to suggest a way for you to make this easier for yourself, i'd suggest you to, in your MAIN top level package.json file, to include the dependencies you need for your app # the specific version you need. If you need them bundled for some reason, add them into the bundled section, if you need sub modules at a different version than what the author intended. Consider making a folder called package or vendor and then placing the modules in there, in those you can edit the package.json and bundles their dependencies to your hearts content. Be sure though that you do not ignore any files or folders under you vendor or packages directory with .npmignore or .gitignore files.
Alternatively, if this is too difficult (editing all theses files and specifying certain versions can be a pain) I'd suggest hosting your vendor packages some where where you could download them with a script, and then execute this script in the postinstall part of your package.json (take a read at https://npmjs.org/doc/scripts.html ... you would add this in the same section you have your "start" script.
I hope that clarifies things.