Difference Between a Npm Dependency & devDependencies

When installing and using the Node Package Manager (Npm), what is the difference between dependencies and devDependencies?

In short:

• "dependency": Packages that are needed for your application to work in production.
• "devDepencency": Packages that are only needed in your local development or testing.

This command will install a package as a dependency:

npm install <package-name> --save

After installing a package using one of those commands, it will be added to the "dependencies" list in your package.json file.

And to install a package as a devDependency:

npm install <package-name> --save-dev

This will add the package to the "devDependencies" list in your package.json file.

Now when you run the npm install command in the root of your project directory, it will install all of the packages in both the "dependencies" and "devDependencies" lists in your package.json file.

If you want to only install the "dependencies" and not the "devDependencies" packages, you can set the --production flag.