Multiple ways to upgrade all packages to the latest version in a project

Many times, there is a need to update all packages within a project to their latest versions. Each project has dependencies crucial for its functionality, and over time, these dependencies release new versions. In a project, you may want to check and update all dependencies to their latest versions.

There are multiple ways to update all dependencies in a package.json file to their latest versions.

npm outdated and update commands This command reads the dependencies and their versions from the package.json file. It checks and identifies the latest versions for each dependency, providing a list that includes both the current version and the latest version for each dependency.

E:\myapp>npm outdated
Package       Current   Wanted   Latest  Location                   Depended by
autoprefixer  10.4.16  10.4.17  10.4.17  node_modules/autoprefixer  myapp

For example, in this project, the current version of autoprefixer is 10.4.16, while the latest version is 10.4.17.

The outdated command provides a report containing version information, but it does not update the project.

Next, you can use the npm update command to update all dependencies to their latest versions.

E:\myapp>npm update
added 1 package, changed 14 packages, and audited 693 packages in 1m

140 packages are looking for funding
  run `npm fund` for details

found 0 vulnerabilities

This command performs the following actions:

Updates the version in package.json to the latest version.
Installs the new version of dependencies into node_modules.
Updates the version and the versions of indirect dependencies in package-lock.json to the latest versions
use npm-check-updates package

npm-check-updates is a third-party tool to manage and install dependencies. It provides the ncu command to update all dependencies to their latest versions.

First, install globally using the below command

npm install -g npm-check-updates

After installation, the ncu command works.

Running the ncu command without options lists the current and latest versions of all dependencies.

ncu

Using the ncu -u command option updates all packages to their latest versions in the package.json. However, it does not install the latest version of dependencies.

ncu -u

if you want to update a single package use 1 option with package name

ncu -f package -u

To install the latest version, the npm install command must be executed.

npm install

npm - Upgrade