<p><code>yarn</code> is an alternative package manager for Javascript and the Javascript runtime environment(Node) which claims to provide speed, consistency, stability, and security.&nbsp;</p>
<p><code>yarn</code> was created in order to overcome some of the problems faced in dealing with packages for large codebases by Facebook in collaboration with Google and a few other companies.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Yarn stands for <strong>Yet Another Resource Negotiator</strong>.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">How to install yarn?</h2>
<p>Yarn can be installed in various methods based on your operating system. With yarn version 2, a lot of things have changed compared to v1. But as of now installing process remains the same and to even use v2, we need to first install the latest v1.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Install yarn using npm&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Yes, using npm we can install yarn as a global package, for this, you need to have npm already installed. This works for all types of operating systems.</p>
<pre class="language-bash"><code>npm install -g yarn</code></pre>
<p>If you face any issues with installation or running yarn installed using npm, then you can follow up the OS-specific method for installing yarn.</p>
<h3>Yarn installation for Mac users</h3>
<p>Mac users can use homebrew for installing the yarn package manager.</p>
<pre class="language-bash"><code>brew install yarn</code></pre>
<p>For other ways of installation, you can visit this yarn official <a href="https://classic.yarnpkg.com/lang/en/docs/install/#mac-stable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">link</a> and under alternatives dropdown select macOS and you'll see different ways of installing yarn in mac.</p>
<p><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cloudtale/image/upload/v1641227823/devapt/yarn-macos.jpg" alt="yarn-install-macos" width="450" /></p>
<h3>Yarn installation for Windows users</h3>
<p>Windows users can download the latest yarn <code>.msi</code> file from this <a href="https://classic.yarnpkg.com/lang/en/docs/install/#windows-stable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">link</a> and run it for installing the yarn. By using chocolatey and scoop package managers also yarn can be installed.</p>
<p>After the installation is completed you can confirm it by running the below command</p>
<pre class="language-bash"><code>yarn --version</code></pre>
<p>If you see the version number without any errors then you've successfully installed yarn.</p>
<p><code>yarn</code> is a CLI tool using which we can manage the packages from the npm registry.</p>
<p>Let's see the different yarn commands to manage npmjs packages.</p>
<p>There are a lot of yarn commands for dealing with npm packages but our main focus will be on the commands related to consuming the packages not creating or publishing those.</p>
<p>Note: We'll be seeing all commands from yarn v1 and a few updated commands of v2.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Essential yarn commands</h2>
<h3>To check the yarn version</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>yarn --version(or -v) // To see your yarn version</code></pre>
<h3>To initialize</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>yarn init
or 
yarn init -y // To autocomplete the details</code></pre>
<h3>For installing packages</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>yarn add  &lt;package&gt; // To save in dependencies list
yarn add --dev(or -D) &lt;package&gt; // To save in dev dependencies list

// To install a particular version of the package
yarn add &lt;package&gt;@2.1.1 // version as per the need, 2.1.1 is a sample version

// To install all the packages from package.json
yarn 
or
yarn install

// To install a global package accessible to all the projects
yarn global add &lt;package&gt;</code></pre>
<h3>For listing or checking packages</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>yarn list // By default lists all the packages and their dependencies
yarn list --depth=0 // To restrict the depth of the dependencies use depth flag

// To list global packages just use global before list command
yarn global list // Lists all globally installed packages and their dependencies
yarn global list --depth=0 // Lists all global packages with zero level dependencies
</code></pre>
<h3>For updating packages</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>// For updating a single package (semver contraints will be respected)
yarn upgrade &lt;package&gt; // Updates package to the latest version in the current project
yarn global upgrade &lt;package&gt; // Updates global package to the latest version

// For updating all packages
yarn upgrade  // Updates all packages to their latest versions respecting their semver constraints
yarn global upgrade // Updates all global packages to their latest versions respecting semver constraints

// To check the outdated packages instead of directly updating
yarn outdated // Lists the outdated packages in the current project directory
yarn upgrade-interactive // Before updating the packages it shows a list of outdated packages to select

// To manually update any package to any version
yarn upgrade &lt;package&gt;@version
yarn global upgrade &lt;package&gt;@version</code></pre>
<p>Semver means <strong>semantic versioning</strong>. For the dependencies in the package.json, besides version number, a small hat(<code>^</code>) or tilde(<code>~</code>) is prefixed for some dependencies. It means those dependencies can be updated to the latest minor version when it is prefixed with (<code>^</code>) and to the latest patch version when it is prefixed with (<code>~</code>).&nbsp;</p>
<p>So <code>yarn upgrade</code> command when updating such dependencies considers semver prefixes without breaking the project or that dependency.&nbsp;</p>
<p>There's a whole site dedicated for <a href="https://semver.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">semver</a> to learn more about it.</p>
<h3>For uninstalling packages</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>yarn remove &lt;package&gt; // To uninstall the package installed locally
yarn global remove &lt;package&gt; // To uninstall the globally installed package
</code></pre>
<h3>For getting package details</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>yarn info &lt;package&gt; // Shows details about that particular package 
yarn info &lt;package&gt;@version // To see specific package version details
// To see the details of the package it need not be installed locally
</code></pre>
<h3>For auditing packages</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>yarn audit // To scan all dependencies and list all the vulnerabilities 
yarn audit --json // To audit and list the details in a JSON format</code></pre>
<h3>Miscellaneous commands</h3>
<pre class="language-javascript"><code>yarn run &lt;command&gt; // Any script/command listed in the scripts in package.json
yarn run // Lists all the scripts available to run
yarn import // To generate yarn.lock from an npm package-lock.json while migration
</code></pre>
<p>Note all the commands are as per yarn v1 and in v2 lot of new commands are added. Once everyone starts using v2, these commands will be updated.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So that is all about the most important yarn commands to know for getting started using the yarn package manager.</p>

Here is the guide to install yarn and all the essential yarn commands to know to get started with yarn effectively. Yarn provides speed and consistency.

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Guide to install yarn and essential yarn commands to know