Answer by Peter Dotchev for npm 5 install folder without using symlink

Use npm pack+npm install (as suggested by install-local package)

npm pack <path-to-local-package>npm install <package-version.tgz>

This will effectively copy your local package to node_modules.Note that this will package only production relevant files (those listed in the files section of your package.json). So, you can install it in a test app under the package own directory. Something like this:

my-package  package.json  test    test-app      package.json      node_modules        my-package

Assuming that test dir is not included in the files in my-package/package.json.

This works the same way with npm 5 and older versions.