This command will check the registry to see if any (or, specific) installed
packages are currently outdated.
In the output:
wanted is the maximum version of the package that satisfies the semver
range specified in package.json. If there's no available semver range (i.e.
you're running npm outdated --global, or the package isn't included in
package.json), then wanted shows the currently-installed version.
latest is the version of the package tagged as latest in the registry.
Running npm publish with no special configuration will publish the package
with a dist-tag of latest. This may or may not be the maximum version of
the package, or the most-recently published version of the package, depending
on how the package's developer manages the latest dist-tag.
location is where in the dependency tree the package is located. Note that
npm outdated defaults to a depth of 0, so unless you override that, you'll
always be seeing only top-level dependencies that are outdated.
package type (when using --long / -l) tells you whether this package is
a dependency or a devDependency. Packages not included in package.json
are always marked dependencies.
homepage (when using --long / -l) is the homepage value contained in the package's package.json
Red means there's a newer version matching your semver requirements, so you should update now.
Yellow indicates that there's a newer version above your semver requirements (usually new major, or new 0.x minor) so proceed with caution.
glob requires ^5, which prevents npm from installing glob@6, which is
outside the semver range.
Git dependencies will always be reinstalled, because of how they're specified.
The installed committish might satisfy the dependency specifier (if it's
something immutable, like a commit SHA), or it might not, so npm outdated and
npm update have to fetch Git repos to check. This is why currently doing a
reinstall of a Git dependency always forces a new clone and install.
npm@3.5.2 is marked as "wanted", but "latest" is npm@3.5.1 because npm
uses dist-tags to manage its latest and next release channels. npm update
will install the newest version, but npm install npm (with no semver range)
will install whatever's tagged as latest.
once is just plain out of date. Reinstalling node_modules from scratch or
running npm update will bring it up to spec.
Configuration
json
Default: false
Type: Boolean
Show information in JSON format.
long
Default: false
Type: Boolean
Show extended information.
parseable
Default: false
Type: Boolean
Show parseable output instead of tree view.
global
Default: false
Type: Boolean
Check packages in the global install prefix instead of in the current
project.