1NPM-LS(1) NPM-LS(1)
2
6 npm-ls - List installed packages
7 Synopsis
9 npm ls <package-spec>
10 alias: list
12 Description
14 This command will print to stdout all the versions of packages that are
15 installed, as well as their dependencies when --all is specified, in a
16 tree structure.
17 Note: to get a "bottoms up" view of why a given package is included in
19 the tree at all, use npm help explain.
20 Positional arguments are name@version-range identifiers, which will
22 limit the results to only the paths to the packages named. Note that
23 nested packages will also show the paths to the specified packages. For
24 example, running npm ls promzard in npm's source tree will show:
25 npm@10.2.3 /path/to/npm
27 └─┬ init-package-json@0.0.4
28 └── promzard@0.1.5
29 It will print out extraneous, missing, and invalid packages.
31 If a project specifies git urls for dependencies these are shown in
33 parentheses after the name@version to make it easier for users to rec‐
34 ognize potential forks of a project.
35 The tree shown is the logical dependency tree, based on package depen‐
37 dencies, not the physical layout of your node_modules folder.
38 When run as ll or la, it shows extended information by default.
40 Note: Design Changes Pending
42 The npm ls command's output and behavior made a ton of sense when npm
43 created a node_modules folder that naively nested every dependency. In
44 such a case, the logical dependency graph and physical tree of packages
45 on disk would be roughly identical.
46 With the advent of automatic install-time deduplication of dependencies
48 in npm v3, the ls output was modified to display the logical dependency
49 graph as a tree structure, since this was more useful to most users.
50 However, without using npm ls -l, it became impossible to show where a
51 package was actually installed much of the time!
52 With the advent of automatic installation of peerDependencies in npm
54 v7, this gets even more curious, as peerDependencies are logically "un‐
55 derneath" their dependents in the dependency graph, but are always
56 physically at or above their location on disk.
57 Also, in the years since npm got an ls command (in version 0.0.2!), de‐
59 pendency graphs have gotten much larger as a general rule. Therefore,
60 in order to avoid dumping an excessive amount of content to the termi‐
61 nal, npm ls now only shows the top level dependencies, unless --all is
62 provided.
63 A thorough re-examination of the use cases, intention, behavior, and
65 output of this command, is currently underway. Expect significant
66 changes to at least the default human-readable npm ls output in npm v8.
67 Configuration
69 all
70 • Default: false
71 • Type: Boolean
73 When running npm outdated and npm ls, setting --all will show all out‐
76 dated or installed packages, rather than only those directly depended
77 upon by the current project.
78 json
80 • Default: false
81 • Type: Boolean
83 Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.
86 • In npm pkg set it enables parsing set values with JSON.parse() be‐
88 fore saving them to your package.json.
89 Not supported by all npm commands.
92 long
94 • Default: false
95 • Type: Boolean
97 Show extended information in ls, search, and help-search.
100 parseable
102 • Default: false
103 • Type: Boolean
105 Output parseable results from commands that write to standard output.
108 For npm search, this will be tab-separated table format.
109 global
111 • Default: false
112 • Type: Boolean
114 Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into the pre‐
117 fix folder instead of the current working directory. See npm help fold‐
118 ers for more on the differences in behavior.
119 • packages are installed into the {prefix}/lib/node_modules folder,
121 instead of the current working directory.
122 • bin files are linked to {prefix}/bin
124 • man pages are linked to {prefix}/share/man
126 depth
129 • Default: Infinity if --all is set, otherwise 1
130 • Type: null or Number
132 The depth to go when recursing packages for npm ls.
135 If not set, npm ls will show only the immediate dependencies of the
137 root project. If --all is set, then npm will show all dependencies by
138 default.
139 omit
141 • Default: 'dev' if the NODE_ENV environment variable is set to 'pro‐
142 duction', otherwise empty.
143 • Type: "dev", "optional", or "peer" (can be set multiple times)
145 Dependency types to omit from the installation tree on disk.
148 Note that these dependencies are still resolved and added to the pack‐
150 age-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json file. They are just not physically
151 installed on disk.
152 If a package type appears in both the --include and --omit lists, then
154 it will be included.
155 If the resulting omit list includes 'dev', then the NODE_ENV environ‐
157 ment variable will be set to 'production' for all lifecycle scripts.
158 include
160 • Default:
161 • Type: "prod", "dev", "optional", or "peer" (can be set multiple
163 times)
164 Option that allows for defining which types of dependencies to install.
167 This is the inverse of --omit=<type>.
169 Dependency types specified in --include will not be omitted, regardless
171 of the order in which omit/include are specified on the command-line.
172 link
174 • Default: false
175 • Type: Boolean
177 Used with npm ls, limiting output to only those packages that are
180 linked.
181 package-lock-only
183 • Default: false
184 • Type: Boolean
186 If set to true, the current operation will only use the package-
189 lock.json, ignoring node_modules.
190 For update this means only the package-lock.json will be updated, in‐
192 stead of checking node_modules and downloading dependencies.
193 For list this means the output will be based on the tree described by
195 the package-lock.json, rather than the contents of node_modules.
196 unicode
198 • Default: false on windows, true on mac/unix systems with a unicode
199 locale, as defined by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG environment
200 variables.
201 • Type: Boolean
203 When set to true, npm uses unicode characters in the tree output. When
206 false, it uses ascii characters instead of unicode glyphs.
207 workspace
209 • Default:
210 • Type: String (can be set multiple times)
212 Enable running a command in the context of the configured workspaces of
215 the current project while filtering by running only the workspaces de‐
216 fined by this configuration option.
217 Valid values for the workspace config are either:
219 • Workspace names
221 • Path to a workspace directory
223 • Path to a parent workspace directory (will result in selecting all
225 workspaces within that folder)
226 When set for the npm init command, this may be set to the folder of a
229 workspace which does not yet exist, to create the folder and set it up
230 as a brand new workspace within the project.
231 This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.
233 workspaces
235 • Default: null
236 • Type: null or Boolean
238 Set to true to run the command in the context of all configured
241 workspaces.
242 Explicitly setting this to false will cause commands like install to
244 ignore workspaces altogether. When not set explicitly:
245 • Commands that operate on the node_modules tree (install, update,
247 etc.) will link workspaces into the node_modules folder. - Commands
248 that do other things (test, exec, publish, etc.) will operate on
249 the root project, unless one or more workspaces are specified in
250 the workspace config.
251 This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.
254 include-workspace-root
256 • Default: false
257 • Type: Boolean
259 Include the workspace root when workspaces are enabled for a command.
262 When false, specifying individual workspaces via the workspace config,
264 or all workspaces via the workspaces flag, will cause npm to operate
265 only on the specified workspaces, and not on the root project.
266 This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.
268 install-links
270 • Default: false
271 • Type: Boolean
273 When set file: protocol dependencies will be packed and installed as
276 regular dependencies instead of creating a symlink. This option has no
277 effect on workspaces.
278 See Also
280 • npm help "package spec"
281 • npm help explain
283 • npm help config
285 • npm help npmrc
287 • npm help folders
289 • npm help explain
291 • npm help install
293 • npm help link
295 • npm help prune
297 • npm help outdated
299 • npm help update
301 November 2023 NPM-LS(1)