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Diffstat (limited to 'deps/npm/man/man1/npm-README.1')
| -rw-r--r-- | deps/npm/man/man1/npm-README.1 | 27 |
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/deps/npm/man/man1/npm-README.1 b/deps/npm/man/man1/npm-README.1 index 09ffc12b2f..c0aa54f86e 100644 --- a/deps/npm/man/man1/npm-README.1 +++ b/deps/npm/man/man1/npm-README.1 @@ -133,16 +133,23 @@ this means that future npm installs will not remember the settings that you have chosen\. .SH Using npm Programmatically .P -If you would like to use npm programmatically, you can do that\. -It's not very well documented, but it \fIis\fR rather simple\. -.P -Most of the time, unless you actually want to do all the things that -npm does, you should try using one of npm's dependencies rather than -using npm itself, if possible\. -.P -Eventually, npm will be just a thin cli wrapper around the modules -that it depends on, but for now, there are some things that you must -use npm itself to do\. +Although npm can be used programmatically, its API is meant for use by the CLI +\fIonly\fR, and no guarantees are made regarding its fitness for any other purpose\. +If you want to use npm to reliably perform some task, the safest thing to do is +to invoke the desired \fBnpm\fR command with appropriate arguments\. +.P +The semantic version of npm refers to the CLI itself, rather than the +underlying API\. \fIThe internal API is not guaranteed to remain stable even when +npm's version indicates no breaking changes have been made according to +semver\.\fR +.P +If you \fIstill\fR would like to use npm programmatically, it's \fIpossible\fR\|\. The API +isn't very well documented, but it \fIis\fR rather simple\. +.P +Eventually, npm will be just a thin CLI wrapper around the modules that it +depends on, but for now, there are some things that only the CLI can do\. You +should try using one of npm's dependencies first, and only use the API if what +you're trying to do is only supported by npm itself\. .P .RS 2 .nf |