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npm-update

Update a package.

Synopsis

npm update [-g] [<pkg>...]

aliases: up, upgrade

Description

This command will update all the packages listed to the latest version (specified by the tag config), respecting semver.

It will also install missing packages. As with all commands that install packages, the --dev flag will cause devDependencies to be processed as well.

If the -g flag is specified, this command will update globally installed packages.

If no package name is specified, all packages in the specified location (global or local) will be updated.

As of [email protected], the npm update will only inspect top-level packages. Prior versions of npm would also recursively inspect all dependencies. To get the old behavior, use npm --depth 9999 update.

As of [email protected], the npm update will change package.json to save the new version as the minimum required dependency. To get the old behavior, use npm update --no-save.

EXAMPLES

IMPORTANT VERSION NOTE: these examples assume [email protected] or later. For older versions of npm, you must specify --depth 0 to get the behavior described below.

For the examples below, assume that the current package is app and it depends on dependencies, dep1 (dep2, .. etc.). The published versions of dep1 are:

{
  "dist-tags": { "latest": "1.2.2" },
  "versions": [
    "1.2.2",
    "1.2.1",
    "1.2.0",
    "1.1.2",
    "1.1.1",
    "1.0.0",
    "0.4.1",
    "0.4.0",
    "0.2.0"
  ]
}

Caret Dependencies

If app's package.json contains:

"dependencies": {
  "dep1": "^1.1.1"
}

Then npm update will install [email protected], because 1.2.2 is latest and 1.2.2 satisfies ^1.1.1.

Tilde Dependencies

However, if app's package.json contains:

"dependencies": {
  "dep1": "~1.1.1"
}

In this case, running npm update will install [email protected]. Even though the latest tag points to 1.2.2, this version does not satisfy ~1.1.1, which is equivalent to >=1.1.1 <1.2.0. So the highest-sorting version that satisfies ~1.1.1 is used, which is 1.1.2.

Caret Dependencies below 1.0.0

Suppose app has a caret dependency on a version below 1.0.0, for example:

"dependencies": {
  "dep1": "^0.2.0"
}

npm update will install [email protected], because there are no other versions which satisfy ^0.2.0.

If the dependence were on ^0.4.0:

"dependencies": {
  "dep1": "^0.4.0"
}

Then npm update will install [email protected], because that is the highest-sorting version that satisfies ^0.4.0 (>= 0.4.0 <0.5.0)

Updating Globally-Installed Packages

npm update -g will apply the update action to each globally installed package that is outdated -- that is, has a version that is different from latest.

NOTE: If a package has been upgraded to a version newer than latest, it will be downgraded.