# Bower - A package manager for the web
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---
Bower offers a generic, unopinionated solution to the problem of **front-end package management**, while exposing the package dependency model via an API that can be consumed by a more opinionated build stack. There are no system wide dependencies, no dependencies are shared between different apps, and the dependency tree is flat.
Bower runs over Git, and is package-agnostic. A packaged component can be made up of any type of asset, and use any type of transport (e.g., AMD, CommonJS, etc.).
**View complete docs on [bower.io](http://bower.io)**
[View all packages available through Bower's registry](http://bower.io/search/).
## Install
```sh
$ npm install -g bower
```
Bower depends on [Node.js](http://nodejs.org/) and [npm](http://npmjs.org/). Also make sure that [git](http://git-scm.com/) is installed as some bower
packages require it to be fetched and installed.
## Usage
See complete command line reference at [bower.io/docs/api/](http://bower.io/docs/api/)
### Installing packages and dependencies
```sh
# install dependencies listed in bower.json
$ bower install
# install a package and add it to bower.json
$ bower install --save
# install specific version of a package and add it to bower.json
$ bower install # --save
```
### Using packages
We discourage using bower components statically for performance and security reasons (if component has an `upload.php` file that is not ignored, that can be easily exploited to do malicious stuff).
The best approach is to process components installed by bower with build tool (like [Grunt](http://gruntjs.com/) or [gulp](http://gulpjs.com/)), and serve them concatenated or using a module loader (like [RequireJS](http://requirejs.org/)).
### Uninstalling packages
To uninstall a locally installed package:
```sh
$ bower uninstall
```
### prezto and oh-my-zsh users
On `prezto` or `oh-my-zsh`, do not forget to `alias bower='noglob bower'` or `bower install jquery\#1.9.1`
### Never run Bower with sudo
Bower is a user command; there is no need to execute it with superuser permissions.
### Windows users
To use Bower on Windows, you must install
[Git for Windows](http://git-for-windows.github.io/) correctly. Be sure to check the
options shown below:
Note that if you use TortoiseGit and if Bower keeps asking for your SSH
password, you should add the following environment variable: `GIT_SSH -
C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin\TortoisePlink.exe`. Adjust the `TortoisePlink`
path if needed.
### Ubuntu users
To use Bower on Ubuntu, you might need to link `nodejs` executable to `node`:
```
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node
```
## Configuration
Bower can be configured using JSON in a `.bowerrc` file. Read over available options at [bower.io/docs/config](http://bower.io/docs/config).
## Support
* [Discord chat](https://discord.gg/0fFM7QF0KpZRh2cY)
* [StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/bower)
* [Mailinglist](http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-bower) - twitter-bower@googlegroups.com
## Contributing
We welcome [contributions](https://github.com/bower/bower/graphs/contributors) of all kinds from anyone. Please take a moment to review the [guidelines for contributing](CONTRIBUTING.md).
* [Bug reports](https://github.com/bower/bower/wiki/Report-a-Bug)
* [Feature requests](CONTRIBUTING.md#features)
* [Pull requests](CONTRIBUTING.md#pull-requests)
Note that on Windows for tests to pass you need to configure Git before cloning:
```
git config --global core.autocrlf input
```
## License
Copyright (c) 2016 Twitter and [other contributors](https://github.com/bower/bower/graphs/contributors)
Licensed under the MIT License