1--- 2section: using-npm 3title: removal 4description: Cleaning the Slate 5--- 6 7# removal(7) 8 9## Cleaning the Slate 10 11### Synopsis 12 13So sad to see you go. 14 15```bash 16sudo npm uninstall npm -g 17``` 18 19Or, if that fails, get the npm source code, and do: 20 21```bash 22sudo make uninstall 23``` 24 25### More Severe Uninstalling 26 27Usually, the above instructions are sufficient. That will remove 28npm, but leave behind anything you've installed. 29 30If that doesn't work, or if you require more drastic measures, 31continue reading. 32 33Note that this is only necessary for globally-installed packages. Local 34installs are completely contained within a project's `node_modules` 35folder. Delete that folder, and everything is gone less a package's 36install script is particularly ill-behaved). 37 38This assumes that you installed node and npm in the default place. If 39you configured node with a different `--prefix`, or installed npm with a 40different prefix setting, then adjust the paths accordingly, replacing 41`/usr/local` with your install prefix. 42 43To remove everything npm-related manually: 44 45```bash 46rm -rf /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm,_modules},bin,share/man}/npm* 47``` 48 49If you installed things *with* npm, then your best bet is to uninstall 50them with npm first, and then install them again once you have a 51proper install. This can help find any symlinks that are lying 52around: 53 54```bash 55ls -laF /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm},bin,share/man} | grep npm 56``` 57 58Prior to version 0.3, npm used shim files for executables and node 59modules. To track those down, you can do the following: 60 61```bash 62find /usr/local/{lib/node,bin} -exec grep -l npm \{\} \; ; 63``` 64 65(This is also in the README file.) 66 67### See also 68 69* [npm uninstall](/cli-commands/npm-uninstall) 70* [npm prune](/cli-commands/npm-prune) 71