Angular-cli: Provide a way to generate a new project in an existing directory

[frosiere]

The current implementation of ng new does not allow creating a new project in an existing directory.

It would be interesting to have an option to generate the project in the current directory without removing everything.

[alvaro450]

This is already possible, try using this arguments:

ng new appName --directory ./

[filipesilva]

Closing as answered by @alvaro450, thanks!

[sokraflex]

This does not work.
I used exactly the command described above, result:

Error: Schematic input does not validate against the Schema: {"directory":"./","name":"appName","skipGit":false,"style":"css","version":"1.7.0","commit":{"message":"chore: initial commit from @angular/cli\n\n _ _ ____ _ ___\n / \\ _ __ __ _ _ _| | __ _ _ __ / ___| | |_ _|\n / △ \\ | '_ \\ / _\\` | | | | |/ _\\` | '__| | | | | | |\n / ___ \\| | | | (_| | |_| | | (_| | | | |___| |___ | |\n/_/ \\_\\_| |_|\\__, |\\__,_|_|\\__,_|_| \\____|_____|___|\n |___/\n","name":"Angular CLI","email":"[email protected]"},"path":"app","sourceDir":"src","inlineStyle":false,"inlineTemplate":false,"routing":false,"prefix":"app","skipTests":false,"skipInstall":false,"linkCli":false,"minimal":false,"serviceWorker":false} Errors: .directory should match format "path"

[javlc]

I am running angular-cli as a project dependency (i.e. not installed globally), in an existing node electron project.

I want to initialize the existing project as angular project, copying/adding the file structure to the existing project.

The command ng new appName --directory ./ does not work, as I get: You cannot use the new command inside an Angular CLI project.

My project does not have any angular-cli.json file, but it has the angular-cli node_modules folder and is listed as dependency in package.json.

Since ng init command is no longer available, is there a way of achieving what I want to do?

I'm using Node.js 7.9.0, npm 4.6.1, and the local angular-cli version is same as npm.

[markopill]

for me just ng new appName did the trick
it generated inside existing directory

Angular CLI: 1.7.2 Node: 6.11.3 OS: win32 x64

[WaveMeUp]

I get the same error as @javlc, solution from @markopill didn't work either.

Angular CLI: 1.7.3, Ndoe: 8.1.3, OS: Windows 10 x64

[b0ric]

ng new proj_name --directory ./

is not working for me as well producing the following error:

Error: Schematic input does not validate against the Schema: ...
Errors:
  .directory should match format "path"

PS: not even working with absolute paths, it's trying to re-create entire directory structure inside project's folder.

[thismarcoantonio]

Should be a bug, .directory should match format "path" also showing for me.

Also, I made --directory ./ in the past and it worked before...

[matthewwwillard]

Work around i've found is to be one level higher then the directory you want.
Ex:
-develop (here)
-- project_folder (where you want to init angular)
so the command would be; ng new myAwesomeApp --directory project_folder

[TylerGubala]

Additionally I get

```
error! project-name/README.md already exists.
error! project-name/.gitignore already exists.
````

If I'm trying to add this to a project where I have already put a lot of work into the gitignore/ README. Bummer.

[Akiq2016]

@matthewwwillard it works for me, thanks!
ng new myAwesomeApp --directory project_folder

[jericdeleon]

ng new appName --directory ./ is failing for Angular CLI: 6.0.1

Error message is:

Schematic input does not validate against the Schema: {"dryRun":false,"directory":".","version":"6.0.1","skipGit":false,"skipInstall":false,"linkCli":false,"commit":true,"newProjectRoot":"projects","inlineStyle":false,"inlineTemplate":false,"routing":false,"prefix":"app","style":"css","skipTests":false}
Errors:

  Data path ".directory" should match format "path".

Although, going back up one directory and doing this is fine: ng new appName --directory project_folder

Also: is there a reason why the --directory flag is missing from ng new --help?
It could save at least one Google search :)

[Amitesh]

Thanks @jericdeleon
It works for me. Thanks. 👍

[skrzepij]

@jericdeleon in Angular CLI 6 try to use --directory . - works for me.

[sebastiandg7]

For folks having the same situation as @TylerGubala. Just backup those files and replace them after the project generation.

NOTE: Make sure the .gitignore file includes, at least, all of the generated .gitignore configuration.

[abhishek-g]

ng new appName --directory ./ only works if its a fresh blank directory. Say i have an express app created already and i want to install and create a cli app , it won't allow as having a package.json already present there. Can this append to the package.json and help people out.

For now i did a workaround where renamed my existing package.json and copied things back.

[ddramone]

I had the same problem about README.md file.

I run the ng new command from the upper directory

cd ../
ng new my-project --directory './existing-folder'

Works like a charm.

[pcnate]

I ended up just copying the files manually. Is there an issue created to get this added to the documentation and maybe even to all ./?

[narendrasinghrathore]

@jericdeleon in Angular CLI 6 try to use --directory . - works for me.

Yes to create angular new project using cli in existing directory
ng new project_name --directory .

Tested in angular 7

[charsi]

Not working with @angular/cli 7.0.5.
ng new proj-name --directory . creates a new directory proj-name in the current directory. Same as without the --directory flag.

[Napster2210]

ng new app_name --directory=./ works for me with below configuration.

Angular CLI: 7.3.4
Node: 10.15.0
OS: darwin x64
Angular: 7.2.7

[flipdoubt]

Did not work for me until I updated Node after seeing the version posted by @Napster2210. --directory . works after node --version reports v11.11.0.

[vanzinvestor]

cli 7.3.3 you can use ng new --directory . for create in current directory

[DanielChuDC]

ng new --directory . works with the configuration below:

Angular CLI: 8.1.3
Node: 10.15.3
OS: darwin x64
Angular: 8.1.3

[angular-automatic-lock-bot[bot]]

This issue has been automatically locked due to inactivity.
Please file a new issue if you are encountering a similar or related problem.

Read more about our automatic conversation locking policy.

_{_This action has been performed automatically by a bot._}