How to Check and Update Outdated NPM Packages
Beda Arta
NPMNode.js
A quick guide on how I check and update outdated NPM packages in a Node.js project using simple npm commands to keep dependencies up to date.
- Check the outdated npm packages in the current project by running this command:
npm outdated
Below are some examples of outdated npm packages that need to be updated in my project.
| Package | Current | Wanted | Latest | Location | Depended by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| @azure/data-tables | 13.3.1 | 13.3.2 | 13.3.2 | node_modules/@azure/data-tables | migrations |
| contentful-import | 9.4.111 | 9.4.129 | 9.4.129 | node_modules/contentful-import | migrations |
| contentful-management | 11.54.4 | 11.63.1 | 11.63.1 | node_modules/contentful-management | migrations |
| contentful-migration | 4.31.0 | 4.31.5 | 4.31.5 | node_modules/contentful-migration | migrations |
| dotenv | 16.6.1 | 16.6.1 | 17.2.3 | node_modules/dotenv | migrations |
| jest | 29.7.0 | 29.7.0 | 30.2.0 | node_modules/jest | migrations |
| rimraf | 3.0.2 | 3.0.2 | 6.1.2 | node_modules/rimraf | migrations |
| typescript | 5.9.2 | 5.9.3 | 5.9.3 | node_modules/typescript | migrations |
- To update the npm packages, simply run this command:
npm update
This will update packages to the wanted version.
- Once updated, check one more time to see the changes by re-running this command:
npm outdated
| Package | Current | Wanted | Latest | Location | Depended by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dotenv | 16.6.1 | 16.6.1 | 17.2.3 | node_modules/dotenv | migrations |
| jest | 29.7.0 | 29.7.0 | 30.2.0 | node_modules/jest | migrations |
| rimraf | 3.0.2 | 3.0.2 | 6.1.2 | node_modules/rimraf | migrations |
After updating the packages, the next step I usually take is to re-test the project to ensure everything works as expected.
For some projects I worked on earlier, I used npm-check-updates as an alternative approach.