How to install npm packages globally without sudo on Linux

All quoted.

1. Set up a package root in your homedir to hold the Node "global" packages:

   $ NPM_PACKAGES="$HOME/.npm-packages"
   $ mkdir -p "$NPM_PACKAGES"
   

2. Set NPM to use this directory for its global package installs:

   $ echo "prefix = $NPM_PACKAGES" >> ~/.npmrc
   

3. Configure your PATH and MANPATH to see commands in your $NPM_PACKAGES prefix by adding the following to your .bashrc:

   # NPM packages in homedir
   NPM_PACKAGES="$HOME/.npm-packages"
   
   # Tell our environment about user-installed node tools
   PATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/bin:$PATH"
   # Unset manpath so we can inherit from /etc/manpath via the `manpath` command
   unset MANPATH  # delete if you already modified MANPATH elsewhere in your configuration
   MANPATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/share/man:$(manpath)"
   
   # Tell Node about these packages
   NODE_PATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/lib/node_modules:$NODE_PATH"
   

Now when you do an npm install -g, NPM will install the libraries into ~/.npm-packages/lib/node_modules link executable tools into ~/.npm-packages/bin, which is in your PATH.