# Compressing for installation via upload

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/compressing-for-installation-via-upload/78585>\
**Category:** Developing Nodes\
**Created:** [21 May 2023 16:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/compressing-for-installation-via-upload/78585 "2023-05-21T16:43:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ethereotek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df788c/32.png) [@ethereotek](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ethereotek)\
**Post date:** [21 May 2023 16:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/compressing-for-installation-via-upload/78585/1 "2023-05-21T16:43:48Z")

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Hello all,

I've got a couple utility nodes that I want to make available to upload as a tar instead of going the npm route. I've installed a couple packages this way, but when I try to compress the directories for my own nodes and upload, I always get very unhelpful "module not found" errors. I can't seem to find any useful documentation on installing via a tar gz. Any useful hints/docs on how to get this process working?

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [21 May 2023 17:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/compressing-for-installation-via-upload/78585/2 "2023-05-21T17:20:06Z")

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I believe this may be because npm cannot find the package.json file in the archive. What steps did you take to compress the folder?

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**Author:** ![ethereotek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df788c/32.png) [@ethereotek](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ethereotek)\
**Post date:** [21 May 2023 19:12 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/compressing-for-installation-via-upload/78585/3 "2023-05-21T19:12:45Z")

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I think I figured it out. I was compressing in the command line using `tar`, but I needed to use `npm pack`; didn't know that was a thing! When I upload the .tgz made with `npm pack` it all works as expected.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [4 June 2023 19:12 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/compressing-for-installation-via-upload/78585/4 "2023-06-04T19:12:50Z")

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Closed on 4 June 2023 19:12 UTC

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