npm-ls
List installed packagesTable of contents
Synopsis
npm ls <package-spec>
alias: list
Description
This command will print to stdout all the versions of packages that are
installed, as well as their dependencies when --all is specified, in a
tree structure.
Note: to get a "bottoms up" view of why a given package is included in the
tree at all, use npm explain.
Positional arguments are name@version-range identifiers, which will limit
the results to only the paths to the packages named. Note that nested
packages will also show the paths to the specified packages. For
example, running npm ls promzard in npm's source tree will show:
npm@8.19.4 /path/to/npm
└─┬ init-package-json@0.0.4
└── promzard@0.1.5
It will print out extraneous, missing, and invalid packages.
If a project specifies git urls for dependencies these are shown
in parentheses after the name@version to make it easier for users to
recognize potential forks of a project.
The tree shown is the logical dependency tree, based on package
dependencies, not the physical layout of your node_modules folder.
When run as ll or la, it shows extended information by default.
Note: Design Changes Pending
The npm ls command's output and behavior made a ton of sense when npm
created a node_modules folder that naively nested every dependency. In
such a case, the logical dependency graph and physical tree of packages on
disk would be roughly identical.
With the advent of automatic install-time deduplication of dependencies in
npm v3, the ls output was modified to display the logical dependency
graph as a tree structure, since this was more useful to most users.
However, without using npm ls -l, it became impossible to show where a
package was actually installed much of the time!
With the advent of automatic installation of peerDependencies in npm v7,
this gets even more curious, as peerDependencies are logically
"underneath" their dependents in the dependency graph, but are always
physically at or above their location on disk.
Also, in the years since npm got an ls command (in version 0.0.2!),
dependency graphs have gotten much larger as a general rule. Therefore, in
order to avoid dumping an excessive amount of content to the terminal, npm ls now only shows the top level dependencies, unless --all is
provided.
A thorough re-examination of the use cases, intention, behavior, and output
of this command, is currently underway. Expect significant changes to at
least the default human-readable npm ls output in npm v8.
Configuration
all
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
When running npm outdated and npm ls, setting --all will show all
outdated or installed packages, rather than only those directly depended
upon by the current project.
json
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.
- In
npm pkg setit enables parsing set values with JSON.parse() before saving them to yourpackage.json.
Not supported by all npm commands.
long
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Show extended information in ls, search, and help-search.
parseable
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Output parseable results from commands that write to standard output. For
npm search, this will be tab-separated table format.
global
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into the prefix
folder instead of the current working directory. See
folders for more on the differences in behavior.
- packages are installed into the
{prefix}/lib/node_modulesfolder, instead of the current working directory. - bin files are linked to
{prefix}/bin - man pages are linked to
{prefix}/share/man
depth
- Default:
Infinityif--allis set, otherwise1 - Type: null or Number
The depth to go when recursing packages for npm ls.
If not set, npm ls will show only the immediate dependencies of the root
project. If --all is set, then npm will show all dependencies by default.
omit
- Default: 'dev' if the
NODE_ENVenvironment variable is set to 'production', otherwise empty. - Type: "dev", "optional", or "peer" (can be set multiple times)
Dependency types to omit from the installation tree on disk.
Note that these dependencies are still resolved and added to the
package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json file. They are just not
physically installed on disk.
If a package type appears in both the --include and --omit lists, then
it will be included.
If the resulting omit list includes 'dev', then the NODE_ENV environment
variable will be set to 'production' for all lifecycle scripts.
link
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Used with npm ls, limiting output to only those packages that are linked.
package-lock-only
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
If set to true, the current operation will only use the package-lock.json,
ignoring node_modules.
For update this means only the package-lock.json will be updated,
instead of checking node_modules and downloading dependencies.
For list this means the output will be based on the tree described by the
package-lock.json, rather than the contents of node_modules.
unicode
- Default: false on windows, true on mac/unix systems with a unicode locale,
as defined by the
LC_ALL,LC_CTYPE, orLANGenvironment variables. - Type: Boolean
When set to true, npm uses unicode characters in the tree output. When false, it uses ascii characters instead of unicode glyphs.
workspace
- Default:
- Type: String (can be set multiple times)
Enable running a command in the context of the configured workspaces of the current project while filtering by running only the workspaces defined by this configuration option.
Valid values for the workspace config are either:
- Workspace names
- Path to a workspace directory
- Path to a parent workspace directory (will result in selecting all workspaces within that folder)
When set for the npm init command, this may be set to the folder of a
workspace which does not yet exist, to create the folder and set it up as a
brand new workspace within the project.
This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.
workspaces
- Default: null
- Type: null or Boolean
Set to true to run the command in the context of all configured workspaces.
Explicitly setting this to false will cause commands like install to
ignore workspaces altogether. When not set explicitly:
- Commands that operate on the
node_modulestree (install, update, etc.) will link workspaces into thenode_modulesfolder. - Commands that do other things (test, exec, publish, etc.) will operate on the root project, unless one or more workspaces are specified in theworkspaceconfig.
This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.
include-workspace-root
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Include the workspace root when workspaces are enabled for a command.
When false, specifying individual workspaces via the workspace config, or
all workspaces via the workspaces flag, will cause npm to operate only on
the specified workspaces, and not on the root project.
This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.
install-links
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
When set file: protocol dependencies that exist outside of the project root will be packed and installed as regular dependencies instead of creating a symlink. This option has no effect on workspaces.