How to Enable Yarn

Yarn is a fast, reliable, and secure package management tool developed by Facebook. It offers faster dependency installation speeds, better offline support, and more reliable dependency resolution compared to npm. Using Yarn can help developers manage project dependencies more efficiently, improving development productivity.

Enabling Yarn

Node.js installed via ServBay typically comes with Yarn included and enabled by default. If Yarn is not enabled or needs updating, you can follow the steps below.

Verify Yarn is Installed

1. Open the terminal and enter the following command to check the Yarn version:

   yarn -v

   Example output:

   1.22.19

Install or Update Yarn

If the following message appears when you enter yarn, it means Yarn needs to be installed or updated. Enter Y to download and install:

$ yarn -v
! Corepack is about to download https://registry.yarnpkg.com/yarn/-/yarn-1.22.22.tgz
? Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

1.22.22

After confirming the installation or update, check the version number again:

$ yarn -v
1.22.22

If Yarn is not installed or needs to be manually updated, you can install or update it via the following command:

npm install -g yarn

After the installation or update is complete, confirm the version number again:

yarn -v

By following these steps, you can ensure that Yarn is correctly installed and updated to the latest version.

Benefits of Using Yarn

The main advantages of Yarn include its quick dependency installations, better offline support, and more reliable dependency resolution. Here are some practical examples of using Yarn:

Initialize a Project

Use Yarn to initialize a new Node.js project:

yarn init

This will guide you to create a new package.json file, containing the project's basic information and dependencies.

Install Dependencies

Use Yarn to install project dependencies:

yarn install

This will install all dependencies according to the package.json file.

Add a Dependency

Add a new dependency package:

yarn add lodash

This will install the lodash package and update the package.json file.

Remove a Dependency

Remove a dependency package:

yarn remove lodash

This will remove the lodash package from the project and update the package.json file.

Update Dependencies

Update all dependencies in the project:

yarn upgrade

Using Yarn Scripts

Yarn allows you to define scripts in the package.json file for conveniently executing common commands. For example, add the following scripts to the package.json file:

"scripts": {
  "start": "node app.js",
  "test": "jest"
}

You can then run these scripts using the following commands:

yarn start
yarn test

Common Commands

• Install a global package:

  yarn global add <package-name>

  For example, install create-react-app:

  yarn global add create-react-app

• View global packages:

  yarn global list

• Clean cache:

  yarn cache clean

By using Yarn, developers can benefit from faster dependency installation speeds, better offline support, and more reliable dependency resolution, thereby improving overall development productivity.