---
title: npm-rebuild
section: 1

description: Rebuild a package

Synopsis

npm rebuild [<package-spec>] ...]

alias: rb

Description

This command does the following:

1. Execute lifecycle scripts (preinstall, install, postinstall, prepare)
2. Links bins depending on whether bin links are enabled

This command is particularly useful in scenarios including but not limited to:

1. Installing a new version of node.js, where you need to recompile all your C++ add-ons with the updated binary.
2. Installing with --ignore-scripts and --no-bin-links, to explicitly choose which packages to build and/or link bins.

If one or more package specs are provided, then only packages with a name and version matching one of the specifiers will be rebuilt.

Usually, you should not need to run npm rebuild as it is already done for you as part of npm install (unless you suppressed these steps with --ignore-scripts or --no-bin-links).

If there is a binding.gyp file in the root of your package, then npm will use a default install hook:

"scripts": {
    "install": "node-gyp rebuild"
}

This default behavior is suppressed if the package.json has its own install or preinstall scripts. It is also suppressed if the package specifies "gypfile": false

Configuration

global

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into the prefix
folder instead of the current working directory. See
folders for more on the differences in behavior.

• packages are installed into the {prefix}/lib/node_modules folder, instead
  of the current working directory.
• bin files are linked to {prefix}/bin
• man pages are linked to {prefix}/share/man

bin-links

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Tells npm to create symlinks (or .cmd shims on Windows) for package
executables.

Set to false to have it not do this. This can be used to work around the
fact that some file systems don't support symlinks, even on ostensibly Unix
systems.

foreground-scripts

• Default: false unless when using npm pack or npm publish where it
  defaults to true
• Type: Boolean

Run all build scripts (ie, preinstall, install, and postinstall)
scripts for installed packages in the foreground process, sharing standard
input, output, and error with the main npm process.

Note that this will generally make installs run slower, and be much noisier,
but can be useful for debugging.

ignore-scripts

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If true, npm does not run scripts specified in package.json files.

Note that commands explicitly intended to run a particular script, such as
npm start, npm stop, npm restart, npm test, and npm run-script
will still run their intended script if ignore-scripts is set, but they
will not run any pre- or post-scripts.

workspace

• Default:
• Type: String (can be set multiple times)

Enable running a command in the context of the configured workspaces of the
current project while filtering by running only the workspaces defined by
this configuration option.

Valid values for the workspace config are either:

• Workspace names
• Path to a workspace directory
• Path to a parent workspace directory (will result in selecting all
  workspaces within that folder)

When set for the npm init command, this may be set to the folder of a
workspace which does not yet exist, to create the folder and set it up as a
brand new workspace within the project.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

workspaces

• Default: null
• Type: null or Boolean

Set to true to run the command in the context of all configured
workspaces.

Explicitly setting this to false will cause commands like install to
ignore workspaces altogether. When not set explicitly:

• Commands that operate on the node_modules tree (install, update, etc.)
  will link workspaces into the node_modules folder. - Commands that do
  other things (test, exec, publish, etc.) will operate on the root project,
  unless one or more workspaces are specified in the workspace config.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

include-workspace-root

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Include the workspace root when workspaces are enabled for a command.

When false, specifying individual workspaces via the workspace config, or
all workspaces via the workspaces flag, will cause npm to operate only on
the specified workspaces, and not on the root project.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

install-links

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

When set file: protocol dependencies will be packed and installed as regular
dependencies instead of creating a symlink. This option has no effect on
workspaces.

See Also

• package spec
• npm install