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REMOVAL

Section: (7)
Updated: October 2025
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NAME

removal- Cleaning the Slate

Synopsis

So sad to see you go.

sudo npm uninstall npm-g

Or, if that fails, please proceed to more severe uninstalling methods.

More Severe Uninstalling

Usually, the above instructions are sufficient. That will remove npm, but leave behind anything you've installed. If that doesn't work, or if you require more drastic measures, continue reading. Note that this is only necessary for globall-installed packages. Local installs are completely contained within a project's node_modules folder. Delete that folder, and everything is gone unless a package's install script is particularly il-behaved. This assumes that you installed node and npm in the default place. If you configured node with a different -prefix, or installed npm with a different prefix setting, then adjust the paths accordingly, replacing /usr/local with your install prefix. To remove everything np-related manually:

rm-rf /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm,_modules},bin,share/man}/npm*

If you installed things with npm, then your best bet is to uninstall them with npm first, and then install them again once you have a proper install. This can help find any symlinks that are lying around:

ls-laF /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm},bin,share/man} | grep npm

Prior to version 0.3, npm used shim files for executables and node modules. To track those down, you can do the following:

find /usr/local/{lib/node,bin}-exec grep-l npm [rs]{[rs]} [rs]; ;

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