bower
Manage front-end web dependencies.
TLDR
Install package
$ bower install [jquery]
Install from bower.json$ bower install
Search for packages$ bower search [bootstrap]
Update packages$ bower update
List installed packages$ bower list
SYNOPSIS
bower command [options]
DESCRIPTION
bower is a package manager for web development, managing front-end dependencies like JavaScript libraries, CSS frameworks, and web components. It downloads and installs packages from Git repositories.
The tool was popular for front-end dependency management but is now deprecated in favor of npm and yarn.
PARAMETERS
install package
Install packageupdate package
Update packageuninstall package
Remove packagesearch query
Search for packageslist
List installed packagesinfo package
Show package informationinit
Create bower.json--save
Add to dependencies--save-dev
Add to devDependencies
CONFIGURATION
bower.json:
$ {
"name": "my-project",
"dependencies": {
"jquery": "^3.6.0",
"bootstrap": "^5.1.0"
}
}
"name": "my-project",
"dependencies": {
"jquery": "^3.6.0",
"bootstrap": "^5.1.0"
}
}
WORKFLOW
$ # Initialize project
bower init
# Install package
bower install jquery --save
# Install all dependencies
bower install
# Update all
bower update
bower init
# Install package
bower install jquery --save
# Install all dependencies
bower install
# Update all
bower update
CAVEATS
DEPRECATED - No longer actively maintained. Use npm or yarn instead for new projects. Flat dependency tree can cause version conflicts. Requires .bowerrc for configuration. Most packages now available on npm.
HISTORY
Bower was created by Twitter in 2012 to manage front-end dependencies, but was officially deprecated in 2017 as npm adopted similar functionality.