Role of the src and dist folders in NPM packages
<p>Im using <a href="https://github.com/mgonto/restangular" rel="noreferrer">Restangular</a> for HTTP requests. I want to use the method customPATCH. I can see it in the Restangular src/ directory <a href="https://github.com/mgonto/restangular/blob/master/src/restangular.js#L205" rel="noreferrer">here</a>. </p>

<p>However when I ran 'npm install restangular' and pointed to the dist/ folder, I was getting the error "customPATCH is not a function". I noticed the <a href="https://github.com/mgonto/restangular/blob/master/dist/restangular.js" rel="noreferrer">source code</a> in the dist/ folder isnt the same as what's in the src/ folder (it doesnt define the customPATCH method). </p>

<p>Why would there be a difference between what's in src/ and what's in dist/ for an NPM package? Are these normally kept in sync? In this case, the dist/ directory hasn't been updated in 8 months. Should I just use the source in the src/ folder? Maybe I'm misunderstanding how to use NPM packages (I always use the source in the dist/ folder)...</p>