How do I update each dependency in package.json to the latest version?
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 of now is to run npm info express version then update package.json manually for each one. There must be a better way.
{
"name": "myproject",
"description": "my node project",
"version": "1.0.0",
"engines": {
"node": "0.8.4",
"npm": "1.1.65"
},
"private": true,
"dependencies": {
"express": "~3.0.3", // how do I get these bumped to latest?
"mongodb": "~1.2.5",
"underscore": "~1.4.2",
"rjs": "~2.9.0",
"jade": "~0.27.2",
"async": "~0.1.22"
}
}
I am now a collaborator on npm-check-updates, which is a great solution to this problem.
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To see which modules are outdated, just run npm outdated .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.
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
TLDR; (updated for newer NPM versions)
Things have changed a bit since these answers were originally written.
npm 2+: npm outdated + npm update + npm shrinkwrap
Older npm: npm-check-updates package + npm shrinkwrap
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 I pulled out a project the other day and it wouldn't run because my deps were all out of date/updated/a mess.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).
npm outdated
npm-check-updates
npm shrinkwrap