995

We need to integrate Karma test runner into TeamCity and for that I'd like to give sys-engineers small script (powershell or whatever) that would:

  1. pick up desired version number from some config file (I guess I can put it as a comment right in the karma.conf.js)

  2. check if the defined version of karma runner installed in npm's global repo

  3. if it's not, or the installed version is older than desired: pick up and install right version

  4. run it: karma start .\Scripts-Tests\karma.conf.js --reporters teamcity --single-run

So my real question is: "how can one check in a script, if desired version of package installed?". Should you do the check, or it's safe to just call npm -g install everytime?

I don't want to always check and install the latest available version, because other config values may become incompatible

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2
  • There is an online update/analyze tool pkgui.com/npm see this answer about it stackoverflow.com/a/76342980 Commented May 26, 2023 at 17:18
  • npm upgrade... I don't know what "Team City" is, but for anyone else just using Node.js, you can run npm upgrade. Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 6:46

24 Answers 24

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1469
Answer recommended by CI/CD Collective

To check if any module in a project is 'old':

npm outdated

'outdated' will check every module defined in package.json and see if there is a newer version in the NPM registry.

For example, say xml2js 0.2.6 (located in node_modules in the current project) is outdated because a newer version exists (0.2.7). You would see:

[email protected] node_modules/xml2js current=0.2.6

To update all dependencies, if you are confident this is desirable:

npm update

Or, to update a single dependency such as xml2js:

npm update xml2js

To update package.json version numbers, append the --save flag:

npm update --save
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6 Comments

Be careful with npm update especially with npm update -g ... it does not what most peaole expect it to do! See: github.com/npm/npm/issues/6247 and gist.github.com/othiym23/4ac31155da23962afd0e
@jbandi As of [email protected], npm -g update is safe to use again. github.com/npm/npm/issues/6247#issuecomment-92182814
Please be aware that npm update will not update your package.json file as stated by the answer from @Erik Olson.
As of [email protected], 'npm update' will change package.json to save the new version as the minimum required dependency docs.npmjs.com/cli/update.html
just did npm update on my npm 5.6.0 and it broke all code; luckily I backed up my files before doing that
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618

npm outdated will identify packages that should be updated, and npm update <package name> can be used to update each package. But prior to [email protected], npm update <package name> will not update the versions in your package.json which is an issue.

The best workflow is to:

  1. Identify out of date packages with npm outdated
  2. Update the versions in your package.json
  3. Run npm update to install the latest versions of each package

Check out npm-check-updates to help with this workflow.

  • Install npm-check-updates with npm i npm-check-updates -g
  • Run npm-check-updates to list what packages are out of date (basically the same thing as running npm outdated)
  • Run npm-check-updates -u to update all the versions in your package.json (this is the magic sauce)
  • Run npm update as usual to install the new versions of your packages based on the updated package.json

Or more simply using npx, so you don't have to install anything globally:

npx npm-check-updates -u
npm install
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12 Comments

npm outdated will show ALL packages.. even inside other packages.. but those won't get updated with this procedure so they will always appear.. so just use npm-check-updates (as you actually recommended) which only shows main packages from package.json ... this is relevant
With yarn this is much easier just type 'yarn upgrade'.
Why must I install an update manager to manage my package manager? Do we not agree this is silly? It should be as simple as npm install --all-outdated but it isn't...
You can always run npm update --save package_name to save the latest change to package.json.
@ADJenks because npm-check-updates makes major updates, according to semver, which might have breaking changes, whereas npm update does only safe minor and patch updates. See: stackoverflow.com/a/48917961/1243247
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244

There is also a module called npm-check:

npm-check

Check for outdated, incorrect, and unused dependencies.

screenshot of npm-check

It also provides a convenient interactive way to update the dependencies with npm-check -u.

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168

One easy step:

$ npm i -g npm-check-updates && ncu -u && npm i

That is all. All of the package versions in package.json will be the latest major versions.

Edit:

What is happening here?

  1. Installing a package that checks updates for you.

  2. Use this package to update all package versions in your package.json (-u is short for --updateAll).

  3. Install all of the new versions of the packages.

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4 Comments

@imnickvaughn ncu stands for node-check-updates and -a is the 'upgradeAll' option. Find all options here: npmjs.com/package/npm-check-updates
And what if I want to do it in one line without using another package like ncu?
Or without the global install, npx -p npm-check-updates ncu -u
npm-check-updates makes major updates, according to semver, which might have breaking changes. Use it carefully: stackoverflow.com/a/48917961/1243247
87

  • To update a single local package:

    1. First find out your outdated packages by:

      npm outdated

    2. Then update the package or packages that you want manually as:

      npm update --save <package_name>

This way it is not necessary to update your local package.json file manually.

Note that the above command will update your package to the latest version.

  • If you write some version in your package.json file and do:

    npm update <package_name>

    In this case you will get just the next stable version (wanted) regarding the version that you wrote in your package.json file.

And with npm list <package_name> you can find out the current version of your local package.

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1 Comment

in 2025 npm update --save <package_name> simply doesn't work for me. However npm install <package_name>@latest works great.
60

You can try either of these options:

  1. Check outdated packages

    npm outdated

    npm outdated

  2. Check and pick packages to update

    npx npm-check -u

    npx npm-check -u

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36

No additional packages, to just check outdated and update those which are, this command will do:

npm install $(npm outdated | cut -d' ' -f 1 | sed '1d' | xargs -I '$' echo '$@latest' | xargs echo)

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2 Comments

This is a great answer because it can be put in any shell script to automate this step without relying on having any further package installed.
@Jankapunkt yes, for those who have this problem, I used all the answers above with more likes but haven't solved the bug for me. in this case, this answer solved it really well! so just using this is a very great answer (tested on bash terminal)
28

NPM commands to update or fix vulnerabilities in some dependency manifest files

  • Use below command to check outdated or vulnerabilities in your node modules.

    npm audit

  • If any vulnerabilities found, use below command to fix all issues.

    npm audit fix

  • If it doesn't work for you then try

    npm audit fix -f, this command will almost fix all vulnerabilities. Some dependencies or devDependencies are locked in package-lock.json file, so we use -f flag to force update them.

  • If you don't want to use force audit fix then you can manually fix your dependencies versions by changing them in package-lock.json and package.json file. Then run

npm update && npm upgrade

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1 Comment

I ran npm audit fix --force. Now I have more vulnerabilities than before. I can run it again, but it will not change. Now what?
9

When installing npm packages (both globally or locally) you can define a specific version by using the @version syntax to define a version to be installed.

In other words, doing: npm install -g [email protected] will ensure that only 0.9.2 is installed and won't reinstall if it already exists.

As a word of a advice, I would suggest avoiding global npm installs wherever you can. Many people don't realize that if a dependency defines a bin file, it gets installed to ./node_modules/.bin/. Often, its very easy to use that local version of an installed module that is defined in your package.json. In fact, npm scripts will add the ./node_modules/.bin onto your path.

As an example, here is a package.json that, when I run npm install && npm test will install the version of karma defined in my package.json, and use that version of karma (installed at node_modules/.bin/karma) when running the test script:

{
 "name": "myApp",
 "main": "app.js",
 "scripts": {
   "test": "karma test/*",
 },
 "dependencies": {...},
 "devDependencies": {
   "karma": "0.9.2"
 }
}

This gives you the benefit of your package.json defining the version of karma to use and not having to keep that config globally on your CI box.

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2 Comments

what's in the test script? Can you please give me a clue how you install it with a script.
Look at the package.json. Under the "scripts" property, you can define another property, "test" whose value is a command you want to be run when you type npm test. npm docs are pretty good here: npmjs.org/doc/scripts.html
8

As of [email protected]+ you can simply do:

npm update <package name>

This will automatically update the package.json file. We don't have to update the latest version manually and then use npm update <package name>

You can still get the old behavior using 

npm update --no-save

(Reference)

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3 Comments

I have [email protected] and it is not automatically updating my package.json. Running npm update <package name> --save did not help either!
I have [email protected] and can confirm that this is not the default behavior. This is also mentioned explicitly in the documentation.
"Note that by default npm update will not update the semver values of direct dependencies in your project package.json. If you want to also update values in package.json you can run: npm update --save (or add the save=true option to a configuration file to make that the default behavior)."
8

A different approach would be to first uprade the package.json file using,

ncu -u

snapshot of the terminal with the above command and then simply run,

npm install

to update all the packages to the latest version. ps: It will update all the packages to the latest version however if the package is already up to date that package will not be affected at all.

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7

3 simple steps you can use for update all outdated packages

First, check the packages which are outdated

sudo npm i -g npm-check-updates

Second, put all of them in ready

ncu -u

Results in Terminal will be like this:

enter image description here

Third, just update all of them.

npm install

That's it.

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7

Just do this to update everything to the latest version - npx npm-check-updates -u

Note - You'll be prompted to install npm-check-updates. Press y and enter.

Now run npm i. You're good to go.

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7

Simple and efficient solution which doesn't require any additional dependencies and allows upgrading all packages to latest versions even if major versions changed:

npm outdated --parseable | awk -F: '{ printf("%s ", $4); }' | xargs npm install

Explanation:

Stage 1: npm outdated --parseable Produces following output (as an example):

/path/to/my_app/node_modules/pakage1:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:my_app
/path/to/my_app/node_modules/@pakage1/module1:@pakage1/[email protected]:@pakage1/[email protected]:@pakage1/[email protected]:my_app
/path/to/my_app/node_modules/@pakage1/module2:@pakage1/[email protected]:@pakage1/[email protected]:@pakage1/[email protected]:my_app
/path/to/my_app/node_modules/pakage2:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:my_app

Stage 2: Using awk and specifying : as field separator for it, we extract the 4th fields, which contain latest versions of all packages, and combine them into single line, separating them with space: awk -F: '{ printf("%s ", $4); }', produces following output:

[email protected] @pakage1/[email protected] @pakage1/[email protected] [email protected]

Stage 3: Conducts single call to npm install with output from stage 2 used as additional arguments: xargs npm install produces following command:

npm install [email protected] @pakage1/[email protected] @pakage1/[email protected] [email protected]
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6

You can do this completely automatically in 2022

  1. Install npm-check-updates

  2. Run the command

    ncu --doctor -u

  3. It will first try every dependency you have and run tests, if the tests fail it will update each dependency one by one and run tests after each update

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5

To really update just one package install NCU and then run it just for that package. This will bump to the real latest.

npm install -g npm-check-updates

ncu -f your-intended-package-name -u
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3

If you want to upgrade a package to the latest release, (major, minor and patch), append the @latest keyword to the end of the package name, ex:

npm i express-mongo-sanitize@latest

this will update express-mongo-sanitize from version 1.2.1 for example to version 2.2.0.

If you want to know which packages are outdated and which can be updated, use the npm outdated command

ex:

$ npm outdated
Package             Current   Wanted  Latest  Location                         Depended by
express-rate-limit    3.5.3    3.5.3   6.4.0  node_modules/express-rate-limit  apiv2
helmet               3.23.3   3.23.3   5.1.0  node_modules/helmet              apiv2
request-ip            2.2.0    2.2.0   3.3.0  node_modules/request-ip          apiv2
validator           10.11.0  10.11.0  13.7.0  node_modules/validator           apiv2
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2

One more for bash:

npm outdated -parseable|cut -d: -f5|xargs -L1 npm i
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1 Comment

Beautiful solution! Simple and efficient! Just need to update -f5 to -f4 for npm v10 in 2024
2

Using npm install thing@latest ...

In 2025 the only approach that works for me is:

home/ubuntu/myHappyApp# npm outdated
Package      Current       Wanted  Latest  Location              Depended by
multer   1.4.5-lts.2  1.4.5-lts.2   2.0.0  node_modules/multer   myHappyApp
shelljs        0.9.2        0.9.2  0.10.0  node_modules/shelljs  myHappyApp

And then for each one, just npm install thing@latest :

/home/ubuntu/myHappyApp# npm install multer@latest
changed 1 package, and audited 342 packages in 734ms
found 0 vulnerabilities

home/ubuntu/iosPSRealtime# npm outdated
Package  Current  Wanted  Latest  Location              Depended by
shelljs    0.9.2   0.9.2  0.10.0  node_modules/shelljs  myHappyApp

and then /home/ubuntu/myHappyApp# npm install shelljs@latest changed 1 package, and audited 342 packages in 734ms found 0 vulnerabilities

home/ubuntu/iosPSRealtime# npm outdated
home/ubuntu/iosPSRealtime#

Bingo.

If you then do cat package.json you'll see you are DONE.

cat package.json example

Note, npm update --save <package_name> appears to NOT WORK...

Here in 2025 only npm install shelljs@latest works.

Perhaps an expert can explain why npm update --save <package_name> does not work, I cannot.

But npm install shelljs@latest works perfectly.

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1

I'm just interested in updating the outdated packages using the semantic versioning rules in my package.json.

Here's a one-liner that takes care of that

npm update `npm outdated | awk '{print $1}' | tr '\n' ' '`

What it does:

  1. takes the output from npm outdated and
  2. pipes that into awk where we're grabbing just the name of the package (in column 1)
  3. then we're using tr to convert newline characters into spaces
  4. finally -- using backticks -- we're using the output of the preceding steps as arguments to npm update so we get all our needed updates in one shot.

One would think that there's a way to do this using npm alone, but it wasn't here when I looked, so I'm just dropping this here in case it's helpful to anyone 😀.

** I believe there's an answer that MikeMajara provides here that does something similar, but it's appending @latest to the updated package name, which I'm not really interested in as a part of my regularly scheduled updates.

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1

If you have multiple projects with the same node-modules content, pnpm is recommended. This will prevent the modules from being downloaded in each project. After the installation the answer to your question is:

pnpm up
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0

For me, it generally works with using npm-check-updates with peer option

Advantages:

  • Only compatible version of packages will be updated

Installation:

  • [Only first time] npm install -g npm-check-updates

CI/CD (First of second, working in the same manner)

  • [optional] npm i

  • [Any options is ok, both are working in the same way]

    1. npx npm-check-updates --upgrade --peer

    2. ncu --peer

enter image description here

enter image description here

P.s more detailed information can be found there https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm-check-updates

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Comments

0

Use these commands:

Check outdated packages

npm outdated

Update all packages to latest versions

npx npm-check-updates -u
npm install

Alternative: Update within semantic versioning

npm update

If you encounter dependency errors:

npm install --force

or

npm install --force --legacy-peer-deps
  1. npm outdated shows which packages need updates
  2. npx npm-check-updates -u updates all versions in package.json
  3. npm install installs the new versions
  4. Use --force or --legacy-peer-deps to resolve conflicts
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Comments

-2

You can use an online tool https://pkgui.com/npm

It edits the package.json with the major versions and allows manual changes via dropdown.

enter image description here

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