How can I update each dependency in package.json to the latest version?

Question

I copied package.json from another project and now want to bump all of the dependencies to their latest versions since this is a fresh project and I don't mind fixing something if it breaks.

What's the easiest way to do this?

The best way I know is to run npm info express version and then update each dependency in package.json manually. There must be a better way.

{
  "name": "myproject",
  "description": "my node project",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^3.0.3", // how do I get these bumped to latest?
    "mongodb": "^1.2.5",
    "underscore": "^1.4.2"
  }
}

For Yarn-specific solutions, refer to this Stack Overflow question.

There NEEDS to be some better answers here. Obviously with dependency resolution, you can't always have the latest version of everything. Maximizing the greatest number of latest versions of modules is just that, some sort of optimization problem. But NPM doesn't know which modules you want to be most recent more than others. It would be cool if there was something like this: npm update --latest x y z, where x y z are the modules you want to be as recent as possible and all other modules will follow with their most recent compatible version. — Alexander Mills, Oct 26 '16 at 17:18
npm will correctly handle version conflicts between shared dependencies by downloading the correct one for each. So, if Dep A depends on Dep C v1.0.0 and Dep B depends on Dep C v2.0.0, they will each be installed and used appropriately. Therefore, you are free to install the latest of any packages you would like. — Raine Revere, Oct 26 '16 at 20:59
Try this to force upgrade: `npm outdated | sed '1d; s/ .*/@latest/' | xargs npm i --save` — miorey, Aug 23 '19 at 14:53
I'm always checking this answer. But I see that it has slipped in the Google results. Hopefully this comment will help push it's relevance back up!! — Zach Smith, Sep 09 '19 at 05:42
@RaineRevere Seems something has happened about this during 2017 (npm 5.0). Would you be so kind and check https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16525430/npm-check-and-update-package-if-needed and maybe add a reference to it? Some answers below mention 'npm outdated' and 'nom update' but they are lost in the dust. I found your question by search but the other one seems more up-to-date. — akauppi, Nov 23 '19 at 17:54
@akauppi They seem to be different questions and solutions afaict. This question is "How to update to latest?" and the one you referenced is "How to check outdated?" — Raine Revere, Nov 24 '19 at 19:10
Or you can set the version = "latest" for all dependencies, and then run npm i. — SM Adnan, Aug 16 '20 at 23:11
In case of `yarn` you can update your package.json using this command: ```yarn add bootstrap@latest mongoose@latest next@latest next-auth@latest react@latest react-bootstrap@latest react-dom@latest``` — Muhammad Shahzad, Nov 03 '20 at 06:35

score 3233 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:04

3233

It looks like npm-check-updates is the only way to make this happen now.

npm i -g npm-check-updates
ncu -u
npm install

On npm <3.11:

Simply change every dependency's version to *, then run npm update --save. (Note: broken in recent (3.11) versions of npm).

Before:

  "dependencies": {
    "express": "*",
    "mongodb": "*",
    "underscore": "*",
    "rjs": "*",
    "jade": "*",
    "async": "*"
  }

After:

  "dependencies": {
    "express": "~3.2.0",
    "mongodb": "~1.2.14",
    "underscore": "~1.4.4",
    "rjs": "~2.10.0",
    "jade": "~0.29.0",
    "async": "~0.2.7"
  }

Of course, this is the blunt hammer of updating dependencies. It's fine if—as you said—the project is empty and nothing can break.

On the other hand, if you're working in a more mature project, you probably want to verify that there are no breaking changes in your dependencies before upgrading.

To see which modules are outdated, just run npm outdated. It will list any installed dependencies that have newer versions available.

For Yarn specific solution, refer to this Stack Overflow answer.

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:04

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 18 '13 at 03:35

josh3736

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Great answer, thank you. `npm outdated` doesn't seem to work for me, unless I'm misunderstanding what it does. I changed async to "0.2.5", reinstalled it, and ran `npm outdated` and it returned an empty line. – Raine Revere Apr 18 '13 at 20:14
Looks like using `*` is not recommended http://package.json.nodejitsu.com/. Is that any specific reason? – thefourtheye Aug 01 '13 at 07:38
16

@thefourtheye: You generally shouldn't *leave* `*` in package.json since you might end up automatically installing a new module version with breaking changes that break your app. Since we're using `--save` here, the `*` is replaced with each package's current version. – josh3736 Aug 01 '13 at 14:15
2

Tip: Change version numbers like "~3.2.0" to "~3" after the install. This will allow minor version and patch updates (which are backwards compatible in [semver](http://semver.org)) and ignore major version updates (which may be breaking). The magic of '~'! – Raine Revere Oct 15 '13 at 13:42
53

I'm not able to get this to work. Has something changed with npm since this answer was posted? When I use the wildcard and then `npm install --save` the wildcard is left in my `package.json`. – davidtheclark Dec 09 '13 at 22:05
@davidtheclark: Yes, npm 1.3 (released with node 0.10.13) made changes that result in `npm install --save` not updating package.json. Fortunately, `npm update --save` still works. – josh3736 Dec 10 '13 at 02:17
16

Unfortunately, using `update` doesn't work either, for me. I'm still left with the wildcards. Is there any documentation about this that you know of, or any other resources I might look at? – davidtheclark Dec 30 '13 at 21:03
131

A bit old but that might help other people: https://github.com/tjunnone/npm-check-updates | Use `npm install -g npm-check-updates` to install, then `npm-check-updates` to check if your dependencies have updates, and `npm-check-updates -u` to update your package.json versions. Then it's just `npm install` and it will download new versions. – RaphaelDDL Jan 15 '14 at 13:44
1

Is there a way to get `npm outdated` to only show outdated dependencies that are direct dependencies of your project? It seems to also show outdated dependencies for packages in your node_modules directory. – CatDadCode Jun 18 '14 at 22:14
7

Your problem is probably coming from the fact that you try to update dev packages by typing `npm update --save` instead of `npm update --save-dev`. – adriendenat Aug 19 '14 at 21:44
`npm-check-updates` is now the officially supported method for updating your package version numbers to the latest. – Raine Revere Dec 12 '14 at 16:02
5

@Raine, that's a third-party module. While useful, I don't see anything that indicates it's officially supported by npm. – josh3736 Dec 12 '14 at 18:38
Yes, poor choice of words. It's the "best" solution that I know of. Not official. – Raine Revere Dec 13 '14 at 21:42
`npm update --save` seems to destroy git dependencies. Turns them into local `file:` dependencies. – Anm Jan 11 '15 at 16:24
4

delete `npm_modules` folder just in case you have the updated version already (it will keep the `*` if so) – Jossef Harush Kadouri Apr 09 '15 at 10:00
In text editor, use regexp replace(i used Eclipse Find/Replace with checked Regular Expressions) to quickly go thru all entries Find: : ".*?" Replace with: : "*" Put cursor to first dependency, and tap Replace/Find until reach end of list – iTake Oct 21 '15 at 07:55
1

npm update --save (and --save-dev) works fine in 5.3.0 (current version at the moment) – saiyancoder Aug 30 '17 at 03:01
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If you're running npm >= 5.2 you can just run `npx npm-check-updates` as a single command without having to install globally first – Ian Routledge Oct 27 '17 at 13:43
2

The `*` option does not work for me. I forced to change the module version number to a small number, for example, `0.0.1`, then run `ncu -u` and it worked. – Zhang Buzz Jan 28 '18 at 08:18
1

Seriously, it is 2018 and I still need to install an additional npm package to do something simple as updating a package. – Jon Jan 29 '18 at 14:02
Nope. Running `npx npm-check-updates` gives me `require.extensions.hasOwnProperty is not a function` – Inigo Mar 15 '18 at 22:16
Wow, there is no official way? No feature in npm to update ALL to the LATEST version? That's weak. – Domske Apr 26 '18 at 16:01
on second step, you will have to do `ncu -ua` in case you want version to persist in package.json – Prakash May 18 '18 at 19:04
1

npm-check-updates does not work as described in the answer. As [documented](https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm-check-updates#how-dependency-updates-are-determined), it won't touch the * wildcard. Replace `"*"` with `"^0.0.0"` before running `ncu -u`. – wortwart Mar 27 '19 at 16:58
It's curious that the author of the `npm-check-updates` package suggested in this answer is actually the OP... you have now entered `the twilight zone` – papiro Apr 22 '19 at 13:37
Is it fully safe to forcibly update all the packages to each of the respective latest version? Why the command `npm update` does not do it then? Package versions dependencies problems? – João Pimentel Ferreira Feb 07 '20 at 09:42
What about yarn – Sam Apr 09 '20 at 23:15
@Sam Check this thread https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62650640/yarn-how-do-i-update-each-dependency-in-package-json-to-the-latest-version – DevLoverUmar Jul 03 '21 at 18:03
`ncu -u` will upgrade package version ignoring the semver, for example, it will upgrade from `"^1.7.0"` to `"^4.2.0"`. how can I just upgrade to the latest version but still match semver? I know Deleting `package-lock.json` will make NPM install lastest version, but it can't get `package.json` update. – Wayne Mao Sep 08 '21 at 03:25
Update all at once `npm i -g npm-check-updates && ncu -u && npm install` – Ajmal Hasan May 13 '22 at 16:58
To prevent weird errors, it's better to delete node-modules folder after the ncu -u step and then run npm install – dzdmmtf Apr 19 '23 at 14:46

score 1316 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 05 '19 at 08:52

1316

npm-check-updates is a utility that automatically adjusts a package.json with the latest version of all dependencies

see https://www.npmjs.org/package/npm-check-updates

$ npm install -g npm-check-updates
$ ncu -u
$ npm install

[EDIT] A slightly less intrusive (avoids a global install) way of doing this if you have a modern version of npm is:

$ npx npm-check-updates -u
$ npm install

edited Mar 05 '19 at 08:52

Guy

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answered Apr 03 '14 at 21:53

Etienne

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This should be available natively through npm command itself, indeed best solution so far to update the dependencies. – Mohammad Arif May 17 '14 at 11:04
7

Should be part of npm natively, fully agree. However, it is not and this solution comes in like a breeze. Thank you. – Stefan Jun 23 '14 at 20:19
3

i assume you fellows are pushing [HARD] to get this into the core npm? – enorl76 Jan 28 '15 at 22:02
$ ncu //checking for updates. $ ncu -a //updating package.json – Muzaffer Dec 08 '15 at 15:27
@wisemann would you also have to run `npm install` after the `package.json` file is updated? – Batman Dec 17 '15 at 00:57
3

@Batman Yes if you didn't install before. Otherwise use npm update. ncu just updates package.json. It doesn't install or update 'node_modules'. – Muzaffer Dec 17 '15 at 13:19
BAD: it doesn't respect semver settings in `~/.npmrc`!!! I have `save-prefix=~` but it bumped me from `convict ~1.5.0 → ~2.0.0` -- that's not what I have set in npmrc. – jcollum Feb 03 '17 at 19:30
Didn't work for **private** packages. All packages still have `*` instead of version. Tried to remove node_modules – Lukas Liesis Nov 20 '17 at 12:40
This worked for me with any version of NPM: 1) Delete node_modules, 2) ncu -a, 3) npm install. @Lukas Liesis, if you first delete your NPM cache: npm cache clean or npm cache --force (for the whole cache) and specify the file path instead of * ("bar": "file:../foo/bar"), then I think that should work. – user994165 Nov 22 '17 at 20:33
@jcollum, I didn't try the steps above with save-prefix options. – user994165 Nov 22 '17 at 20:34
1

useless package, updating only part of packages with `ncu -a`, not updating package.json also. – Alexander Kim May 19 '18 at 08:40
Imagine that your module depend on Dep A latest version, but Dep A depends on Dep B specifically on v.1.0.0, while there is already a Dep B v1.0.1. If Dep A is not tested to work on Dep B v1.0.1, you should not force Dep B to be the on the latest version because things can break. You should contact the developer of Dev A and tell him to update his dependencies and test it. If you force everything to be on the latest versions, things can break, and probably that's the reason why npm does not support officially this solution. – João Pimentel Ferreira Mar 02 '19 at 11:49
@AlexanderKim maybe this was a bug but this is fixed now, I ran `npx npm-check-updates -u` and got the package.json updated as well as the modules themselves. – JJP Mar 13 '19 at 09:32
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Is it fully safe to forcibly update all the packages to each of the respective latest version? Why the command `npm update` does not do it then? Package versions dependencies problems? – João Pimentel Ferreira Feb 07 '20 at 09:43
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`npx npm-check-updates -u` was the answer for me – SINGULARITY Jul 21 '21 at 15:01
npx npm-check-updates -u $ npm install This was the only thing that worked for me. Thank you – Micah Jul 15 '23 at 05:55

score 453 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 10 '23 at 12:15

Updated for npm v2+

npm 2+ (Node 0.12+):


npm outdated
npm update
git commit package-lock.json

Ancient npm (circa 2014):

npm install -g npm-check-updates
npm-check-updates
npm shrinkwrap
git commit package-lock.json

Be sure to shrinkwrap your deps, or you may wind up with a dead project. I pulled out a project the other day and it wouldn't run because my deps were all out of date/updated/a mess. If I'd shrinkwrapped, npm would have installed exactly what I needed.

Details

For the curious who make it this far, here is what I recommend:

Use `npm-check-updates` or `npm outdated` to suggest the latest versions.

# `outdated` is part of newer npm versions (2+)
$ npm outdated
# If you agree, update.  
$ npm update

#       OR

# Install and use the `npm-check-updates` package.
$ npm install -g npm-check-updates
# Then check your project
$ npm-check-updates
# If you agree, update package.json.
$ npm-check-updates -u

Then do a clean install (w/o the rm I got some dependency warnings)

$ rm -rf node_modules
$ npm install

Lastly, save exact versions to `npm-shrinkwrap.json` with `npm shrinkwrap`

$ rm npm-shrinkwrap.json
$ npm shrinkwrap

Now, `npm install` will now use exact versions in `npm-shrinkwrap.json`

If you check npm-shrinkwrap.json into git, all installs will use the exact same versions.

This is a way to transition out of development (all updates, all the time) to production (nobody touch nothing).

p.s. Yarn is sending your package list to Facebook.

For sure. If you create and `npm-shrinkwrap.json` into source, and commit whenever you update, you can always 'go back to where you were'. I overlooked shrinkwrap feature when I started. — Michael Cole, Dec 31 '15 at 16:01
this does *not* answer the question. The question is how to update the *latest* version. `npm update` only updates to the semver version, not the latest. — gman, Sep 27 '16 at 12:53
Would be great if npm update actually updated package.json. Per https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/13555 this is a bug which is not fixed after 2 years. https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm-check-updates is the current way to go — John B, Jun 04 '18 at 00:51

laconbass · Answer 4 · 2022-06-08T10:53:22.830

232

To update one dependency to its lastest version without having to manually open the package.json and change it, you can run

npm install {package-name}@* {save flags?}

i.e.

npm install express@* --save

This flow is compatible with workspaces, i.e.

npm --workspace some/package install express@*

For reference, npm-install

Note: Some npm versions may need latest flag instead, i.e. npm install express@latest

As noted by user Vespakoen on a rejected edit, it's also possible to update multiple packages at once this way:

npm install --save package-nave@* other-package@* whatever-thing@*

He also apports a one-liner for the shell based on npm outdated. See the edit for code and explanation.

PS: I also hate having to manually edit package.json for things like that ;)

edited Jun 08 '22 at 10:53

answered Apr 30 '14 at 14:51

laconbass

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This solution is great. Quick and easy way to explicitly update a single package to the latest version without installing any new modules. I like npm-check-updates, but afaik it tries to keep *all* packages up to date, which isn't always what you want. – CatDadCode Apr 03 '15 at 18:45
this doesn't work for me `npm install react-native-image-picker@* --save` – Harry Moreno Nov 05 '15 at 17:17
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Use `npm outdated -l` to show whether each package is a dependency or devDependency. Use `npm install --save-dev` to save as a devDependency. – cambunctious Oct 20 '16 at 05:03
1

@Chev: ncu can easily target a single or several packages with `ncu express mocha chai`. You can also exclude packages with `ncu -x mocha`. I agree the above is the simplest solution though for updating a single package. – Raine Revere Dec 27 '16 at 01:05
If using bash, an alias with the following oneliner to update devDeps `npm outdated -lp|awk -F':' '$5~/^dev/{print $4}'|xargs npm i -D` and this for update deps `npm outdated -lp|awk -F':' '$5~/^dep/{print $4}'|xargs npm i -P`. – MauricioRobayo Jun 07 '18 at 23:01
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I just used something similar that worked, from possibly more recent docs... uses "latest" instead of "*" `npm install {package-name}@latest {save flags}` – Drew Thomas Aug 20 '18 at 18:49
2

Many thanks, this solution is great and exactly what I am looking for. It allows you to update a particular package without the need to update every other dependency which may lead to unforeseen problems! – Dany Wehbe Nov 20 '18 at 10:13

GollyJer · Answer 5 · 2022-09-01T00:33:24.290

209

If you happen to be using Visual Studio Code as your IDE, this is a fun little extension to make updating package.json a one click process.

_{note: After updating packages in package.json file, run npm update to install the new versions.}

Version Lens

GitLab Repo

edited Sep 01 '22 at 00:33

answered Mar 27 '17 at 20:00

GollyJer

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There's sublime text 3 version here: https://github.com/yavorsky/Bump, though a bit slow. – Alexander Kim May 24 '18 at 10:46
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Worked beautifully, in case it is not clear to anyone, this simply checks the versions in your package.json against the latest npm repository versions, and allows you to click on a version to update the text content in your package.json. You then need to run "npm update" to tell npm to install the new versions. – MattG Jun 08 '18 at 11:08
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Note that it is already possible to see the latest version of the package dependencies with a brief description in built-in Visual Studio Code by mouse hovering on the package entry: [Built-in Package Version Hint](https://postimg.cc/image/538xikwgb/) – Gürol Canbek Aug 25 '18 at 21:09
4

Note that it does not automatically install packages when clicking a code lens link! It simply updates the package.json version text. – RA. Aug 30 '19 at 23:22
1

This saved me a lot of time, I had to update all dependencies in a project. Thank you very much – Lucas Coelho Jun 11 '23 at 19:29

score 74 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 21 '14 at 22:35

74

This works as of npm 1.3.15.

"dependencies": {
  "foo": "latest"
}

answered Jan 21 '14 at 22:35

Tobias Cudnik

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Good to know. My guess is that this would generally be a bad practice on any production site because it will update to potentially backwards-incompatible versions automatically. The '~2' syntax locks you into a given major version number, which following [semver](http://semver.org/) will be backwards compatible. – Raine Revere Feb 07 '14 at 18:21
1

You can always freeze deps on prod. Theres a command for that. -2 sounds ok. – Tobias Cudnik Feb 20 '14 at 17:50
5

I like using this along with `npm shrinkwrap` to freeze deps. – SavoryBytes Jul 17 '14 at 22:06
If we do this, then how do we know the actual version of that package? Say I had an entry called `"react": "16.9.0"` and then I added latest to it and ran `npm i`, after this how do I find which version of react is now in my project? since `"react":"latest"` is whats left in my package.json, not a number even after I did `npm i` – theprogrammer Feb 19 '20 at 17:57

score 73 · Answer 7 · edited Feb 08 '16 at 15:53

73

Use * as the version for the latest releases, including unstable
Use latest as version definition for the latest stable version
Modify the package.json with exactly the latest stable version number using LatestStablePackages

Here is an example:

"dependencies": {
        "express": "latest"  // using the latest STABLE version
    ,   "node-gyp": "latest"    
    ,   "jade": "latest"
    ,   "mongoose": "*" // using the newest version, may involve the unstable releases
    ,   "cookie-parser": "latest"
    ,   "express-session": "latest"
    ,   "body-parser": "latest"
    ,   "nodemailer":"latest"
    ,   "validator": "latest"
    ,   "bcrypt": "latest"
    ,   "formidable": "latest"
    ,   "path": "latest"
    ,   "fs-extra": "latest"
    ,   "moment": "latest"
    ,   "express-device": "latest"
},

edited Feb 08 '16 at 15:53

Alex

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answered Jan 23 '15 at 03:45

Mr. Sun Lin

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This is the best answer. – Peza Sep 10 '18 at 13:23
still the safest approach to take. Good answer. – klewis Jan 21 '20 at 17:15
"latest" also stops the thrashing that *package.json* does to your git commit history, each time a package version number changes. The only downside being that in a production release we need to freeze the package version numbers, so that the build does not break. Although we might be able to replace "latest" with the actual semvar values, by handling that in *package.json* with a run script for a command like `npm run build`. – tim-montague Jun 07 '22 at 09:06
Not sure if `npm shrinkwrap` is the way to go to freeze version numbers for a production release. But to convert "latest" into exact semvar numbers one could use something like `"scripts": { "build" : "npx --yes npm-check-updates --upgrade" }` in *package.json*. – tim-montague Jun 07 '22 at 09:40

score 64 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 02 '21 at 15:42

64

To see which packages have newer versions available, then use the following command:

npm outdated

to update just one dependency just use the following command:

npm install yourPackage@latest

For example:

My package.json file has dependency:

"@progress/kendo-angular-dateinputs": "^1.3.1",

then I should write:

npm install @progress/kendo-angular-dateinputs@latest

What does --save-dev mean?

npm install @progress/kendo-angular-dateinputs@latest --save-dev

As npm install docs says:

-D, --save-dev: Package will appear in your devDependencies.

edited Jun 02 '21 at 15:42

Leniel Maccaferri

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answered Dec 07 '17 at 07:01

StepUp

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Nice but it looks like that --save (or --save-dev) is not mandatory for update. – Burrich Jul 27 '18 at 23:18
@Burrich yeah, you are right! Please, see my updated answer! Thanks! – StepUp Mar 17 '21 at 10:22
how does this answer the question to 'update each dependency'? Isn't this a manual solution by dependency, not a solution that updates all dependencies? And to the latest major version? – Joe May 09 '22 at 18:32

score 60 · Answer 9 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:44

60

I really like how npm-upgrade works. It is a simple command line utility that goes through all of your dependencies and lets you see the current version compared to the latest version and update if you want.

Here is a screenshot of what happens after running npm-upgrade in the root of your project (next to the package.json file):

For each dependency you can choose to upgrade, ignore, view the changelog, or finish the process. It has worked great for me so far.

To be clear this is a third party package that needs to be installed before the command will work. It does not come with npm itself:

npm install -g npm-upgrade

Then from the root of a project that has a package.json file:

npm-upgrade

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:44

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 22 '17 at 20:08

manncito

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Hmm, `npm-upgrade` did not work for me, but `npm upgrade` did and it updated my package.json file which was exactly what I was looking for. – Grandizer May 24 '18 at 12:44
Hmm interesting, was there an error? The idea behind using `npm-upgrade` is that you get to see exactly what is being upgraded and pick and choose which ones get upgraded. `npm upgrade` may work fine for most people but sometimes you need to have a little more control when upgrading. – manncito May 24 '18 at 21:48
@Grandizer: `upgrade` is an [alias](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/update) for `update`, so there should be no difference between them. However, npm 6.2.0 is buggy, and may [not udpate `package.json`](https://npm.community/t/npm-update-doesnt-save-package-json/872). – Dan Dascalescu Jul 25 '18 at 01:39
2

You can also use this with npx: `npx npm-upgrade` - quite cool! :) – x-ray Feb 26 '19 at 23:37
Please review *[Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question?](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/285551/)* (e.g., *"Images should only be used to illustrate problems that* ***can't be made clear in any other way,*** *such as to provide screenshots of a user interface."*) and [do the right thing](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/45826162/edit) (it covers answers as well, and it also covers program (text) input and output). Thanks in advance. – Peter Mortensen Aug 31 '23 at 16:42

score 48 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:37

48

The only caveat I have found with the best answer above is that it updates the modules to the latest version. This means it could update to an unstable alpha build.

I would use that npm-check-updates utility. My group used this tool and it worked effectively by installing the stable updates.

As Etienne stated above: install and run with this:

$ npm install -g npm-check-updates
$ npm-check-updates -u
$ npm install

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:37

Tyler Davis

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`rm -rf node_modules` before `npm install` got rid of some dependency warnings for me. – Michael Cole Jun 02 '15 at 22:24
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Just in case you have "*" in package.json, simply change it to "0" or "0.0" or "0.0.0" before running npm-check-updates. – igorpavlov Nov 03 '15 at 12:44
You should link directly to whatever the "best answer above" is/was. While your answer stands alone, that explanation isn't clear. – isherwood Jun 02 '22 at 21:19

score 42 · Answer 11 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 17:11

42

I use npm-check to achieve this.

npm i -g npm npm-check
npm-check -ug # To update globals
npm-check -u # To update locals

Another useful command list which will keep exact version numbers in package.json:

npm cache clean
rm -rf node_modules/
npm i -g npm npm-check-updates
ncu -g # Update globals
ncu -u # Update locals
npm I

You can use yarn upgrade-interactive --latest if you are using Yarn.

edited Aug 31 '23 at 17:11

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 17 '17 at 14:16

goksel

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3

`yarn upgrade-interactive --latest` is a better option now – goksel Jul 14 '22 at 13:15
wouldn't that install latest Major? That's not usually better. – Qwerty Aug 19 '23 at 16:56

score 26 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 04 '16 at 15:21

26

Here is a basic regex to match semantic version numbers so you can quickly replace them all with an asterisk.

Semantic Version Regex

([>|<|=|~|^|\s])*?(\d+\.)?(\d+\.)?(\*|\d+)

How to use

Select the package versions you want to replace in the JSON file.

Input the regex above and verify it's matching the correct text.

Replace all matches with an asterisk.

Run npm update --save

answered Mar 04 '16 at 15:21

SavoryBytes

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doesn't when there is number in a package name. i.e.: babel-preset-es2015, babel-preset-stage-0, hex2rgba. Maybe search for quote/double quote at the beggining: `('|")([>|<|=|~|^|\s])*?(\d+\.)?(\d+\.)?(\*|\d+)` – rofrol Sep 15 '17 at 09:47
1

on any editor that supports multiple carets (ej Sublime Text) you can select the first `:` and press `ctrl+d` multiple times until you select them all, then go to the version number (press right arrow 2 times) and press ctrl space, then write `"*"` – Ivan Castellanos Sep 18 '17 at 02:47

score 26 · Answer 13 · edited Apr 05 '23 at 21:24

26

Safe update

Use npm outdated to discover dependencies that are out of date.
Use npm update to perform safe dependency upgrades.
Use npm install <packagename>@latest to upgrade to the latest major version of a package.

Breaking Update

Use npx npm-check-updates -u.
npm install to upgrade all dependencies to their latest major versions.

edited Apr 05 '23 at 21:24

Raine Revere

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answered Oct 30 '20 at 08:09

Chukwuemeka Maduekwe

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The commands listed in the answer are incorrect and will error out. Please note that `npm install @latest` should really be `npm install @latest`. – Alex Aug 11 '21 at 07:57
Works fine for me and my macbook – Kieran Ryan Apr 18 '23 at 16:29

score 23 · Answer 14 · answered Nov 27 '18 at 06:04

23

If you want to use a gentle approach via a beautiful (for terminal) interactive reporting interface I would suggest using npm-check.

It's less of a hammer and gives you more consequential knowledge of, and control over, your dependency updates.

To give you a taste of what awaits here's a screenshot (scraped from the git page for npm-check):

answered Nov 27 '18 at 06:04

TWright

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Please review *[Why not upload images of code/errors when asking a question?](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/285551/)* (e.g., *"Images should only be used to illustrate problems that* ***can't be made clear in any other way,*** *such as to provide screenshots of a user interface."*) and [do the right thing](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/53493655/edit) (it covers answers as well). Thanks in advance. – Peter Mortensen Aug 31 '23 at 16:31

score 21 · Answer 15 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:54

21

This feature has been introduced in npm v5. Update to npm using npm install -g npm@latest and to update package.json:

delete folder node_modules and package-lock.json (if you have any)
run npm update. This will update the dependencies in package.json to the latest, based on semantic versioning.

To update to the very latest version, you can go with npm-check-updates.

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:54

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 01 '17 at 05:34

Sibiraj

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ilyakam · Answer 16 · 2019-02-20T00:58:14.610

21

As of npm version 5.2.0, there is a way to run this in a single line without installing any additional packages to your global npm registry nor locally to your application. This can be done by leveraging the new npx utility that's bundled with npm. (Click here to learn more.)

Run the following command in the root of your project:

npx npm-check-updates -u && npm i

edited Feb 20 '19 at 00:58

answered Feb 01 '19 at 20:06

ilyakam

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andxyz · Answer 17 · 2014-05-20T17:37:18.780

I recently had to update several projects that were using npm and package.json for their gruntfile.js magic. The following bash command (multiline command) worked well for me:

npm outdated --json --depth=0 | \
jq --ascii-output --monochrome-output '. | keys | .[]' | \
xargs npm install $1 --save-dev

The idea here: To pipe the npm outdated output as json, to jq
(jq is a json command line parser/query tool)
(notice the use of --depth argument for npm outdated)
jq will strip the output down to just the top level package name only.
finally xargs puts each LIBRARYNAME one at a time into a npm install LIBRARYNAME --save-dev command

The above is what worked for me on a machine runnning: node=v0.11.10 osx=10.9.2 npm=1.3.24

this required:
xargs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xargs (native to my machine I believe)
and
jq http://stedolan.github.io/jq/ (I installed it with brew install jq)

Note: I only save the updated libraries to package.json inside of the json key devDependancies by using --save-dev, that was a requirement of my projects, quite possible not yours.

Afterward I check that everything is gravy with a simple

npm outdated --depth=0

Also, you can check the current toplevel installed library versions with

npm list --depth=0

I love jq and use it almost everyday, but for this purpose I use simple `awk` instead: `npm outdated --depth=0 | grep -v "^Package" | awk '{print $1}' | xargs npm install $1 --save-dev` — Qorbani, Nov 10 '14 at 02:55
I've been using `cat package.json|jq -r '.devDependencies|keys|map(.+"@latest")|@sh'|xargs npm install --save-dev` — Richard Ayotte, Oct 14 '15 at 14:16

score 17 · Answer 18 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:39

17

If you use Yarn, the following command updates all packages to their latest version:

yarn upgrade --latest

From their documentation:

The upgrade --latest command upgrades packages the same as the upgrade command, but ignores the version range specified in package.json. Instead, the version specified by the latest tag will be used (potentially upgrading the packages across major versions).

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:39

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 17 '18 at 13:14

fotijr

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Doesn't update the dependencies in `package.json` - https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/4390 – Vandesh Jan 13 '20 at 15:26
@Vandesh Please refer to this YARN specific thread https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62650640/how-do-i-update-each-dependency-in-package-json-to-the-latest-version-using-yarn – DevLoverUmar Oct 21 '20 at 13:43

score 13 · Answer 19 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 17:17

13

Use Updtr!

Based on npm outdated, updtr installs the latest version and runs npm test for each dependency. If the test succeeds, updtr saves the new version number to your package.json. If the test fails, however, updtr rolls back its changes.

edited Aug 31 '23 at 17:17

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 27 '16 at 22:24

David Braun

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Yangshun Tay · Answer 20 · 2017-06-13T10:09:14.587

9

If you are using yarn, yarn upgrade-interactive is a really sleek tool that can allow you to view your outdated dependencies and then select which ones you want to update.

More reasons to use Yarn over npm. Heh.

edited Jun 13 '17 at 10:09

answered Jun 13 '17 at 10:00

Yangshun Tay

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Yarn is moving fast, hit a 1.0 already and is a damn pleasure to use. This should be the new selected answer. – vhs Sep 10 '17 at 11:51
3

Doesn't update the dependencies in `package.json` - https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/4390 – Vandesh Jan 13 '20 at 15:27
@JoshHabdas You can follow the following thread for Yarn specific solution.... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62650640/yarn-how-do-i-update-each-dependency-in-package-json-to-the-latest-version – DevLoverUmar Jul 03 '21 at 18:06

score 9 · Answer 21 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:40

Commands that I had to use to update package.json for NPM 3.10.10:

npm install -g npm-check-updates
ncu -a
npm install

Background:

I was using the latest command from @josh3736 but my package.json was not updated. I then noticed the description text when running npm-check-updates -u:

The following dependency is satisfied by its declared version range, but the installed version is behind. You can install the latest version without modifying your package file by using npm update. If you want to update the dependency in your package file anyway, run ncu -a.

Reading the documentation for npm-check-updates you can see the difference:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm-check-updates

-u, --upgrade: overwrite package file

-a, --upgradeAll: include even those dependencies whose latest version satisfies the declared semver dependency

ncu is an alias for npm-check-updates as seen in the message when typing npm-check-updates -u:

[INFO]: You can also use ncu as an alias

In npm-check-updates v3, `-a` is the default behavior, and overwriting the package.json is left solely to the `-u` option. — Raine Revere, May 01 '19 at 15:40

Yukulélé · Answer 22 · 2019-07-01T02:04:43.953

6

If you don't want to install global npm-check-updates you can simply run that:

node -e "const pk = JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync('package.json', 'utf-8'));require('child_process').spawn('npm', ['install', ...Object.keys(Object.assign({},pk.dependencies, pk.devDependencies)).map(a=>a+'@latest')]).stdout.on('data', d=>console.log(d.toString()))"

edited Jul 01 '19 at 02:04

answered Jun 23 '19 at 11:35

Yukulélé

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Love it! Best answer here. No unwanted dependencies required for a one-time task. Thank you kind sir! – David Roth Nov 06 '21 at 19:35
this command not work for us @Node.js v18.14.1 + Windows – vlatko606 Feb 24 '23 at 14:20

score 6 · Answer 23 · answered Sep 28 '20 at 00:10

6

If you're looking for an easier solution that doesn't involve installing npm packages, I'd checkout updatepackagejson.com

answered Sep 28 '20 at 00:10

Andrei Gec

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score 6 · Answer 24 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:12

6

As it's almost been 10 years since the original question, and many of the answers are either outdated or not recommended.

I would use something which is package manager-agnostic, i.e., can work with npm, pnpm, Yarn or others.

Lately I have been using taze.

You can either add it to your development dependencies and run from there or run without installation with npx taze or pnpx taze, etc.

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:12

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 20 '22 at 08:57

husayt

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score 5 · Answer 25 · answered Nov 02 '14 at 16:43

5

The above commands are unsafe because you might break your module when switching versions. Instead I recommend the following

Set actual current node modules version into package.json using npm shrinkwrap command.
Update each dependency to the latest version IF IT DOES NOT BREAK YOUR TESTS using https://github.com/bahmutov/next-update command line tool

npm install -g next-update
// from your package
next-update

answered Nov 02 '14 at 16:43

gleb bahmutov

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1

Backwards-incompatible changes do need to be safeguarded against for active projects. The OP is more concerned with starting a new project where you *want* to break things now rather than later and have the latest versions to work from. – Raine Revere Dec 12 '14 at 16:05

score 5 · Answer 26 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:48

5

Try the following command if you are using npm 5 and Node.js 8:

npm update --save

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:48

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 04 '17 at 11:48

krunal shah

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The `update` command does not seem to bump dependencies beyond the original definition. If `package.json` declares `"1.2.3"` exactly you won't get `1.2.4`. That can be good or bad :) – Álvaro González Jan 17 '18 at 12:05

score 5 · Answer 27 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:44

5

I solved this by using the instructions from npm-check-updates:

npm install -g npm-check-updates
ncu
ncu -u # To update all the dependencies to the latest
ncu -u "specific module name"  # In case you want to update specific dependencies to the latest

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:44

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 22 '18 at 14:17

Sunil

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score 5 · Answer 28 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:26

5

I found another solution for recent versions of NPM. I want to replace all the "*" dependencies with the explicit latest version number. None of the methods discussed has worked for me.

I did:

Replace all "*" with "^0.0.0"
Run npm-check-updates -u

Everything in package.json now is updated to the last version.

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:26

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 27 '19 at 10:33

miqrc

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score 4 · Answer 29 · answered Feb 25 '18 at 23:15

The following code (which was accepted) wrote me something like "it takes too long blah-blah" and did nothing. Probably using the global flag was the problem, idk.

npm i -g npm-check-updates
ncu -u
npm install

I decided to use my text editor and follow a semi-manual approach instead.

I copied a list like this (just a lot longer) from the dev dependencies of my package.json to the notepad++ text editor:

"browserify": "10.2.6",
"expect.js": "^0.3.1",
"karma": "^0.13.22",
"karma-browserify": "^5.2.0",

I set the search mode to regular expression, used the ^\s*"([^"]+)".*$ pattern to get the package name and replaced it with npm uninstall \1 --save-dev \nnpm install \1 --save-dev. Clicked on "replace all". The otput was this:

npm uninstall browserify --save-dev 
npm install browserify --save-dev
npm uninstall expect.js --save-dev 
npm install expect.js --save-dev
npm uninstall karma --save-dev 
npm install karma --save-dev
npm uninstall karma-browserify --save-dev 
npm install karma-browserify --save-dev

I copied it back to bash and hit enter. Everything was upgraded and working fine. That's all.

"browserify": "^16.1.0",
"expect.js": "^0.3.1",
"karma": "^2.0.0",
"karma-browserify": "^5.2.0",

I don't think it is a big deal, since you have to do it only every now and then, but you can easily write a script, which parses the package.json and upgrades your packages. I think it is better this way, because you can edit your list if you need something special, for example keeping the current version of a lib.

With npm-check-updates, the hanging terminal is a known issue on Windows. Try adding `--packageFile package.json` so that knows not to wait for stdin. — Raine Revere, May 01 '19 at 15:48

score 3 · Answer 30 · answered Apr 28 '22 at 05:54

It's wild to me that 90% of answers is some variant of "use npm-check-updates". Here's what I do (relevant code):

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "updates": "^13.0.5" // the version here could be "latest" or "*" tbh...
  },
  "scripts": {
    "test:dependencies": "updates --update ./",
  }
}

Running npm run test:dependencies (or whatever your dependency update script is called) will check your package.json for the latest versions of every package listed, and it'll let you know when the latest version was published. Run npm i after that and you'll be up to date!

Also, unlike npm-check-updates, updates has zero dependencies (ncu has 29, at the time of this post).

score 3 · Answer 31 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 17:08

3

Instead of installing yet another Node.js module for a one-off use case, you can just do this in your shell...

npm install $(npm outdated | tail -n +2 | awk '{print $1}' | sed -e 's/$/@latest/g' | tr '\n' ' ')

edited Aug 31 '23 at 17:08

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 09 '22 at 14:56

mattpr

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Haven · Answer 32 · 2014-04-18T12:52:06.487

2

Alternative is

"dependencies":{
    "foo" : ">=1.4.5"
}

everytime you use npm update , it automatically update to the latest version. For more version syntax, you may check here: https://www.npmjs.org/doc/misc/semver.html

edited Apr 18 '14 at 12:52

answered Apr 12 '14 at 16:40

Haven

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One reason for versioning is to prevent backwards-incompatible changes from newer major versions. I would recommend against this or '\*' version numbers. The OP is related to easing the process while maintaining control over *when* it occurs. – Raine Revere Apr 14 '14 at 14:13

score 2 · Answer 33 · answered Apr 27 '16 at 14:29

Solution without additional packages

Change every dependency's version to *:

"dependencies": {
    "react": "*",
    "react-google-maps": "*"
  }

Then run npm update --save.

Some of your packages were updated, but some not?

"dependencies": {
    "react": "^15.0.1",
    "react-google-maps": "*"
  }

This is the tricky part, it means your local version of "react" was lower than the newest one. In this case npm downloaded and updated "react" package. However your local version of "react-google-maps" is the same as the newest one.

If you still want to "update" unchanged *, you have to delete these modules from node_modules folder.

e.g. delete node_modules/react-google-maps.

Finally run again npm update --save.

"dependencies": {
    "react": "^15.0.1",
    "react-google-maps": "^4.10.1"
  }

Do not forget to run npm update --save-dev if you want to update development dependencies.

score 2 · Answer 34 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 17:16

Greenkeeper if you're using GitHub.

It's a GitHub integration and incredibly easy to set things up. When installed, it automatically creates pull requests in repositories you specify (or all if wanted) and keeps your code always up-to-date, without forcing you to do anything manually. PRs should then trigger a build on a CI service and depending on a successful or failed check you can keep figuring out what's triggering the issue or when CI passes simply merge the PR.

At the bottom, you can see that the first build failed at first and after a commit ("upgrade to node v6.9") the tests pass, so I could finally merge the PR. It comes with a lot of emoji, too.

Another alternative would be https://dependencyci.com/, however I didn't test it intensively. After a first look, Greenkeeper looks better in general, IMO, and has better integration.

*"[Greenkeeper has said goodbye](https://greenkeeper.io/)"* – Peter Mortensen Aug 31 '23 at 17:17 — Peter Mortensen, Aug 31 '23 at 17:17
Definitely not a relevant option anymore :D – Luca Steeb Sep 01 '23 at 19:16 — Luca Steeb, Sep 01 '23 at 19:16

score 2 · Answer 35 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:19

2

There is an online package.json update tool. The versions can also be selected via a dropdown.

It also updates to the major version, which npm outdated and ncu don't do.

Paste the package.json content into the input field and let it parse:

The output looks like this:

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:19

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 26 '23 at 17:08

tom

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score 1 · Answer 36 · answered Jan 15 '17 at 21:27

1

npm outdated
npm update

Should get you the latest wanted versions compatible for your app. But not the latest versions.

answered Jan 15 '17 at 21:27

webkitfanz

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score 1 · Answer 37 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:20

An automatic update is possible with NPM-script:

{
    "_cmd-update-modules": "npm run devops-update-modules",
    "scripts": {
        "create-global-node-modules-folder": "if not exist \"%appdata%\\npm\\node_modules\" mkdir %appdata%\\npm\\node_modules",
        "npm-i-g": "npm i npm@latest -g",
        "npm-check-i-g": "npm i npm-check@latest -g",
        "eslint-i-g": "npm i eslint@latest -g",
        "npm-check-u-l": "npm-check \"C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\" -y",
        "npm-check-u-g": "npm-check \"C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\" -y -g",
        "npm-deep-update-l": "npm update --depth 9999 --dev",
        "npm-deep-update-g": "npm update --depth 9999 --dev -g",
        "npm-cache-clear": "npm cache clear --force",
        "devops-update-modules": "npm run create-global-node-modules-folder && npm run npm-i-g && npm run npm-check-i-g && npm run eslint-i-g && npm run npm-check-u-l && npm run npm-check-u-g && npm run npm-deep-update-l && npm run npm-deep-update-g && npm run npm-cache-clear"
    }
}

For further details and step-by-step manual: How can I update all Node.js modules automatically?

score 0 · Answer 38 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 15:59

0

The easiest way to do this as of today is use pnpm rather than npm and simply type:

pnpm update --latest

edited Aug 31 '23 at 15:59

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 29 '19 at 15:23

Sumomo

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score 0 · Answer 39 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:01

0

This can be helpful:

npm outdated | awk '{ if (NR>1) {print $1"@"$4} }' | xargs npm i

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:01

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 08 '22 at 19:32

kozlovd

29
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score 0 · Answer 40 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:13

Expanding on kozlovd's answer, I built a Bash script to update any npm script in two steps:

This gives you the number of npm packages, if you get an error count them manually.

npm list | wc -l

Here replace NUM_PKGS with the number of packages and if you got "UNMET DEPENDENCY" error in the previous command replace $2 for $4.

NUM_PKGS=9999; npm list --no-unicode | awk -v NUM_PKGS=$NUM_PKGS '{\
    if (NR>1 && NR <NUM_PKGS) {\
        pver=A[split($2,A,"@")];\
        print substr($2,0,length($2)-length(pver))"latest";\
    }\
}' | xargs -r npm i

Explanation: The command number 2 first gets the package names and only operates over the lines with them in case of an "UNMET DEPENDENCY" error, then AWK iterates over each package name, it gets the version value and replaces it by "latest", lastly all those packages with the version replaced are collected by xargs who concatenates them after "npm i" to finally install all of them with the latest version.

These steps can update a new project with packages without a set version or an existing project.

score 0 · Answer 41 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:18

0

I find that npm-check-updates works well, but it is extremely heavy in its dependencies (currently 312 packages).

I created a limited, but extremely lightweight, (no dependencies) tool to update dependencies: npm-updatedependencies2latest

Maybe it might be a good solution for others as well.

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:18

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 01 '23 at 22:06

Corno

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score -2 · Answer 42 · edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:17

-2

Here in 2023, I simply used:

npm update

Many packages are updated at that point, but you may get a message that some need to be fixed. In that case, I then ran:

npm audit fix --force

Finally, to make sure it is all installed, I ran:

npm install

That's it; my packages were updated.
There isn't any need to manually edit your configuration files.

edited Aug 31 '23 at 16:17

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 07 '23 at 12:41

raddevus

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`npm update` does not upgrade to the latest version. It only upgrades to the version range given in your package.json. – Raine Revere Feb 07 '23 at 21:26
@RaineRevere Interesting. Not sure how my packages became updated to newer versions then. Would you know how that might've happened after only running npm update? Also, are you saying that the only way to update to newer versions is by manually altering the package-lock.json? if this is still true in 2023 then npm is definitely a failed package system. Thanks – raddevus Feb 08 '23 at 18:30
`npm update --save` will upgrade your package.json dependencies to newer versions, provided that they fall within the specified version range. For example, `^1.0.0` may be upgraded to `^1.1.0` but not `^2.0.0`. – Raine Revere Feb 09 '23 at 15:23
There are several ways to upgrade `package.json` dependencies, as shown in the answers on this page, but none that are built in to npm. The `package-lock.json` would never be manually edited, but rather is generated automatically from your `package.json` when you run `npm install` or `npm update`. The `package-lock.json` will only ever reflect what you have in your `package.json`. So the main concern here is how to upgrade the dependencies in `package.json` beyond their specified versions ranges. – Raine Revere Feb 09 '23 at 15:26

How can I update each dependency in package.json to the latest version?

42 Answers42

Updated for npm v2+

npm 2+ (Node 0.12+):

Ancient npm (circa 2014):

Details

Use `npm-check-updates` or `npm outdated` to suggest the latest versions.

Then do a clean install (w/o the rm I got some dependency warnings)

Lastly, save exact versions to `npm-shrinkwrap.json` with `npm shrinkwrap`

Now, `npm install` will now use exact versions in `npm-shrinkwrap.json`

Version Lens

Semantic Version Regex

How to use

Linked

Related

How can I update each dependency in package.json to the latest version?

42 Answers42

Updated for npm v2+

npm 2+ (Node 0.12+):

Ancient npm (circa 2014):

Details

Use npm-check-updates or npm outdated to suggest the latest versions.

Then do a clean install (w/o the rm I got some dependency warnings)

Lastly, save exact versions to npm-shrinkwrap.json with npm shrinkwrap

Now, npm install will now use exact versions in npm-shrinkwrap.json

Version Lens

Semantic Version Regex

How to use

Linked

Related

Use `npm-check-updates` or `npm outdated` to suggest the latest versions.

Lastly, save exact versions to `npm-shrinkwrap.json` with `npm shrinkwrap`

Now, `npm install` will now use exact versions in `npm-shrinkwrap.json`