node.jsauthenticationnpmnexusnpm-publish

How to set _auth for a scoped registry in .npmrc?

I am wondering how to configure the .npmrc file so that I can have a default registry and a different scoped registry with authentication.

I am using Nexus for the private repository and I am not sure how to set authentication for the scoped registry, only the default registry.

For example my ~/.npmrc file is:

registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/
@test-scope:registry=http://nexus:8081/nexus/content/repositories/npm-test/
email=test@user.com
_auth="…"

If I do npm publish for a package scoped to test-scope, I get an authentication error.

AFAIK, the _auth only applies to the registry=... section. Is there a way of specifying an auth key for the @test-scope:registry=... section?

Thanks,

Solution

  • So, after some digging through the NPM source code, it turns out there is a way to do this.

    My solution is below:

    registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/
@test-scope:registry=http://nexus:8081/nexus/content/repositories/npm-test/
//nexus:8081/nexus/content/repositories/npm-test/:username=admin
//nexus:8081/nexus/content/repositories/npm-test/:_password=YWRtaW4xMjM=
email=…

    Explanation:

    The scope @test-scope specifies that packages with the scope should be published to a different registry than the default registry= when executing the npm publish command.

    The two lines starting with //nexus:8081/... are used to specify the credentials to the scoped repository for both username and _password where _password is the base64 encoded password component from the previously used _auth credentials.

    Using this approach, only scoped packages will be published and installed from the private registry and all other packages will be installed from the default registry.

    Edit:

    Additional to this, the password can be specified as an environment variable so that it is not stored in plaintext in the file.

    For example:

    registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/
@test-scope:registry=http://nexus:8081/nexus/content/repositories/npm-test/
//nexus:8081/nexus/content/repositories/npm-test/:username=admin
//nexus:8081/nexus/content/repositories/npm-test/:_password=${BASE64_PASSWORD}
email=…

    Also, when using Nexus, the email= line must be specified.