Update a package.
npm update [-g] [<pkg>...]
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 Infinity update
, but be warned that simultaneous asynchronous update of all packages, including npm
itself and packages that npm
depends on, often causes problems up to and including the uninstallation of npm
itself.
To restore a missing npm
, use the command:
curl -L https://npmjs.com/install.sh | sh
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"
}
}
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
.
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
.
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
)
--save
When you want to update a package and save the new version as the minimum required dependency in package.json
, you can use npm update -S
or npm update --save
. For example if package.json
contains:
"dependencies": {
"dep1": "^1.1.1"
}
Then npm update --save
will install [email protected]
(i.e., latest
), and package.json
will be modified:
"dependencies": {
"dep1": "^1.2.2"
}
Note that npm
will only write an updated version to package.json
if it installs a new package.
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.
© npm, Inc. and Contributors
Licensed under the npm License.
npm is a trademark of npm, Inc.
https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/update