Yarn is a JavaScript package manager compatible with npm that allows you to install, update, configure, and remove npm packages. It was created to solve a set of problems with npm, such as speeding up the packages installation process by parallelizing operations and reducing errors related to network connectivity.

This tutorial explains how to install Yarn on Debian 10, Buster. We will also cover the basics of how to use Yarn to create a new project and add/remove dependencies.

Installing Yarn on Debian 10

Perform the following steps as root or user with sudo privileges to install Yarn on Debian 10:

  1. Yarn package is available in the Yarn repository. Run the following commands to import the repository’s GPG key and enable the APT repository: 
    curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
  2. Once the repository is enabled, update the package index and install Yarn, with: 
    sudo apt updatesudo apt install yarn

    If Node.js is not installed on your system, the command above will install it. If you a using nvm can skip the Node.js installation with:

    sudo apt install --no-install-recommends yarn
  3. Verify the installation by printing the Yarn version number: 
    yarn --version
    1.21.1

    At the time of writing this article, the latest version is 1.17.3.

Using Yarn

Now that Yarn has been installed on your Debian system let’s explore some of the most common Yarn commands.

Creating a new project

To create a new Yarn project, enter yarn init followed by the project name. For example, to create a project named my_project you would type:

yarn init my_project

The script will ask you several questions. You can either answer or press enter to use the default values:

yarn init v1.21.1
question name (alex): Linuxize
question version (1.0.0): 0.0.1
question description: Testing Yarn
question entry point (index.js): 
question repository url: 
question author: Linuxize
question license (MIT): 
question private: 
success Saved package.json
Done in 20.18s.

All that the command does is creating a basic package.json file containing the information you provided. This file can be modified at any time.

You can also initiate a Yarn project in an existing directory. To do so, navigate to the directory and execute:

yarn init

Adding dependency

To add a package as a dependency to your project, use the yarn add command followed by the package name:

yarn add [package_name]

The command will install the package and any packages that it depends on and update the project’s package.json and yarn.lock files.

By default, if only the package name is given, Yarn installs the latest version. To install a specific version or tag, use the following syntax:

yarn add [package_name]@[version_or_tag]

Upgrading dependency

To upgrade the packages, use one of the following commands:

yarn upgradeyarn upgrade [package_name]yarn upgrade [package_name]@[version_or_tag]

If no package name is given, the command will update the project dependencies to their latest version according to the version range specified in the package.json file. Otherwise, only the specified packages are updated.

Removing dependency

To remove a package from the project’s dependencies invoke the yarn remove command followed by the package name:

yarn remove [package_name]

The command also updates the project’s package.json and yarn.lock files.

Installing all project dependencies

To install all the dependencies of an existing project that are specified in the package.json file run:

yarn

or

yarn install

Conclusion

We have shown you how to install Yarn on your Debian 10 machine. For more information about Yarn visit the Yarn documentation page.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to comment below.

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