How to list npm user-installed packages

Question

How do I list the user-installed / environment package only in npm?

When I do npm -g list, it outputs every package and their dependencies. Instead I'd like to see the packages installed in the current working project or environment.

Answer 1

npm list -g --depth=0

• npm: the Node.js package manager command line tool
• list -g: display a tree of every package found in the user’s folders (without the -g option it only shows the current directory’s packages)
• --depth 0 / --depth=0: avoid including every package’s dependencies in the tree view

Answer 2

You can get a list of all globally installed modules using:

ls `npm root -g`

Answer 3

As of 13 December 2015

While I found the accepted answer 100% correct, and useful, I wished to expand upon it a little based on my own experiences, and hopefully for the benefit of others too. (Here I am using the terms package and module interchangeably)

In an answer to the question, yes the accepted answer would be:

npm list -g --depth=0

You might wish to check for a particular module installed globally, on Unix-like systems or when grep is available. This is particularly useful when checking what version of a module you are using (globally installed; just remove the -g flag if checking a local module):

npm list -g --depth=0 | grep <module_name>

If you'd like to see all available (remote) versions for a particular module, then do:

npm view <module_name> versions

Note, versions is plural. This will give you the full listing of versions to choose from.

For the latest remote version:

npm view <module_name> version

Note, version is singular.

To find out which packages need to be updated, you can use:

npm outdated -g --depth=0

To update global packages, you can use

npm update -g <package>

To update all global packages, you can use:

npm update -g

(However, for npm versions less than 2.6.1, please also see this link as there is a special script that is recommended for globally updating all packages.)

The above commands should work across NPM versions 1.3.x, 1.4.x, 2.x and 3.x.

Answer 4

List NPM packages with some friendly GUI!

This is what I personally prefer and it may be for others too, it may also help during presentations or meetings.

With npm-gui you can list local and global packages with a better visualization.

You can find the package at

• npm-gui (npm)
• npm-gui (GitHub)

Run the following

// Once
npm install -g npm-gui

cd c:\your-prject-folder
npm-gui localhost:9000

Then open your browser at http:\\localhost:9000

Answer 5

For project dependencies use:

npm list --depth=0

For global dependencies use:

npm list -g --depth=0

Answer 6

Use:

npm ls

npm list is just an alias for npm ls.

For the extended information, use:

npm la
npm ll

You can always set --depth=0 at the end to get the first level deep.

npm ls --depth=0

You can check development and production packages.

npm ls --only=dev
npm ls --only=prod

To show the info in json format

npm ls --json=true

The default is false

npm ls --json=false

You can insist on long format to show extended information.

npm ls --long=true

You can show parseable output instead of tree view.

npm ls --parseable=true

You can list packages in the global install prefix instead of in the current project.

npm ls --global=true
npm ls -g // shorthand

You can find the full documentation here.

Answer 7

As the end of 2021, there are few obvious way to do it. Despite all the other answers are still working, I think an update is needed besides a more defined and complete list of commands possible, and while am I at it, I added some other common commands for whom needs it (install, uninstall, etc.)

# Bare command
npm list
# 'ls' is an alias of list
npm ls
# Don't show dependencies
npm list --depth=0
# Global modules
npm list -g --depth=0
# More info
npm la
npm ll
# Show particular environment packages
npm ls --only=dev
npm ls --only=prod
# Parseable view (tree view)
npm ls --parseable=true

The Node.js documentation is actually pretty well explained regarding the matter. This is a collective list of the main commands.

Before starting, note:

---

All commands will run the list of installed modules locally. In order to run at the global level, just add a -g flag at the end of the statement.

---

List installed dependency commands

1. See the version of all installed npm packages, including their dependencies.

   npm list
   
    >>> /Users/joe/dev/node/cowsay
    └─┬ [email protected]
      ├── [email protected]
      ├─┬ [email protected]
      │ ├── [email protected]
      │ └── [email protected]
      ├─┬ [email protected]
      │ ├── [email protected]
      │ └─┬ [email protected]
      │   └── [email protected]
      └── [email protected]
   

2. Get only your top-level packages

    npm list --depth=0
   

3. Get the version of a specific package by specifying its name.

    npm list <package-name>
   

4. See what's the latest available version of the package on the npm repository

    npm view <package-name> version
   

5. Install an old version of an npm package using the @ syntax

   npm install <package>@<version>
   npm install [email protected]
   

6. Listing all the previous versions of a package

   npm view cowsay versions
   [ '1.0.0',
     '1.0.1',
     '1.0.2',
     '1.0.3',
     '1.1.0',
     '1.1.1',
     '1.1.2',
     '1.1.3',
     ....
   ]
   

---

Update all the Node.js dependencies

7. Install a new minor or patch release

    npm update
   

8. Install a new minor or patch release, but do not update file package.json

    npm update --no-save
   

9. To discover new releases of the packages, this gives you the list of a few outdated packages in one repository that wasn't updated for quite a while

    npm outdated
   

Some of those updates are major releases. Running npm update won't update the version of those. Major releases are never updated in this way, because they (by definition) introduce breaking changes, and npm wants to save you trouble.

To update all packages to a new major version, install the npm-check-updates package globally:

npm install -g npm-check-updates
ncu -u

This will upgrade all the version hints in the package.json file, to dependencies and devDependencies, so npm can install the new major version

---

Dev Dependency

Install in development dependencies.

npm install <package-name> -D
npm install <package-name> --save-dev # The same as above

Avoid installing those development dependencies in production with

npm install --production

---

Uninstalling npm packages

npm uninstall <package-name>
npm uninstall -g <package-name> # Globally uninstall

10. Uninstall a package and remove the reference in the package.json file

      npm uninstall <package-name> -S
      npm uninstall <package-name> --save # The same as above
    

---

Some commands with global flag examples.

npm list -g
npm list --depth=0 -g
npm list <package-name> -g
npm view <package-name> version -g

Additional Commands

• Answer by @prosti

Documentation

• Find the installed version of an npm package
• Install an older version of an npm package
• Update all the Node.js dependencies to their latest version
• Semantic Versioning using npm
• Uninstalling npm packages
• npm global or local packages
• npm dependencies and devDependencies
• The npx Node.js Package RunnerTABLE OF CONTENTS

Answer 8

One way might be to find the root directory of modules using:

npm root

Output:

    /Users/me/repos/my_project/node_modules

And then list that directory...

ls /Users/me/repos/my_project/node_modules

Output:

    grunt                   grunt-contrib-jshint

The user-installed packages in this case are grunt and grunt-contrib-jshint.

Answer 9

Node.js has a concept of local modules and global modules.

Local modules are located within the current project directory.

Global modules are generally located at the user's home directory, though we can change the path where global modules reside.

1. Lists local modules within current directory: npm list
2. Lists global modules: npm list --global OR npm list --g // It will list all the top level modules with its dependencies
3. List only the top level (installed modules) global modules: npm list -g --depth=0

Answer 10

>= v7.0.0:

npm ls -g

< v7.0.0:

npm ls -g --depth=0

Reference:

npm ls only prints the first level of dependencies by default. You can make it print more of the tree by using --depth=<n> to set a specific depth, or --all to print all of them.

For the latest release, see the npm documentation: npm-ls, depth

Answer 11

I use npm -g outdated --depth=0 to list outdated versions in the global space.

Answer 12

To see list of all packages that are installed.

$ npm ls --parseable | awk '{gsub(/\/.*\//,"",$1); print}'| sort -u

show parseable of npm packages list https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/ls#parseable

Answer 13

You can try NPM Desktop manager:

With just one click, you can install/uninstall packages in dev or global status.

Answer 14

Use npm list -g to get all the globally installed npm packages.

To get the npm packages of the current project then you can use "npm list" only.

Answer 15

Folder node_modules contains user-installed packages so change the directory to node_modules and list the items. Core Modules are defined in Node.js's source in the lib/ folder.

Example:

cd ~/node_modules
ls

Output:

     express  maxmind-native  node-whois  socket.io  ua-parser-js
     geoip    mongoskin       pdfkit      tail       zeromq
     maxmind  nodemailer      request     ua-parser  zmq

Answer 16

For local modules, usenpm list --depth 0.

For global modules, use npm list -g --depth 0.

Example local npm module

Example global npm module

Answer 17

Use npm list and filter by contains using grep

Example:

npm list -g | grep name-of-package

Answer 18

As a shorthand, you can run:

npm ls -g --depth=0

Answer 19

I am using npm version 7.20.3, and it looks like the default depth is 0 already. So in my case, npm list --global showed only one installed package (npm). I knew I had a lot more packages installed, and I was puzzled at the output.

Eventually, I tried the --depth parameter and I was able to see all the packages installed: npm list --global --depth=1 to see the other packages installed (set to say 10 to see the whole dependency tree).