@pkgdep/update

Updates configured NPM packages without writing the new versions to package-lock.json.

If you want to install a part of NPM dependencies using the package configuration and the package lock and another part without it, using npm up --no-save, this package will help you to automate it.

If you link NPM packages together during the development and you're affected by the problem that npm up and npm ln delete one another packages that the other one added, have a look at @pkgdep/link. It plays well with @pkgdep/update.

# doesn't work                  # works well
npm ci                          npm ci
npm up --no-save some-package   dep-update up some-package
npm ln other-package            dep-link ln other-package

Synopsis

Update a dependency on some-package without modifying the package lock:

@pkgdep/update up some-package

The contents of package.json:

{
  // prepare the project for extra dependencies
  "scripts": {
    "preprepare": "@pkgdep/update up"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "some-package": "^2.0.0",
    "@pkgdep/update": "^1.0.0"
  },
  // added by "@pkgdep/update up ..."
  "updateDependencies": [
    "some-package"
  ]
}

Installation

This module can be installed in your project using NPM. Make sure, that you use Node.js version 16.14 or newer.

npm i -D @pkgdep/update

Package managers PNPM and Yarn aren't supported, because they didn't implement the command-line flag --no-save.

Usage

If you need to update some NPM packages, which ar elocked by package-lock.json, you have to do it after installing the managed dependencies:

npm ci
npm up --no-save some-package

If you need to continue updating more NPM packages, repeated re-installations will make your work inefficient. You can enable automatic update of thesome NPM packages:

npx dep-update s
npx dep-update up some-package

And the installation of both managed and updated NPM packages will become simpler:

npm ci

The contents of package.json will be extended with a preparation script, a development dependency and a section for the extra dependencies:

{
  "scripts": {
    "preprepare": "@pkgdep/update up"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "some-package": "^2.0.0",
    "@pkgdep/update": "^1.0.0"
  },
  "updateDependencies": [
    "some-package"
  ]
}

If you want to store the extra dependencies outside of package.json, you can request the file name package-updates.json, which will be tried by default before package.json:

npx dep-update s -c package-updates.json

If you want to update multipel NPM dependencies by wildcard patterns, you can use BASH patterns. For example, the following pattern will match @unixcompat/cat.js, @unixcompat/cp.js, @unixcompat/mkdir.js and @unixcompat/rm.js:

npx dep-update up "@unixcompat/*"

If you want to automate linking of NPM packages, you can engage @pkgdep/link too. See the example on the project page.

Command-line Interface

Usage: @pkgdep/update [-cdsbplv] <command> [--] [package...]

Commands:
  setup|s            prepare a NPM project to use @pkgdep/update
  update|upgrade|up  upgrade a dependency and if none provided,
                     read the configuration file
  downgrade|down     downgrade a dependency to the locked version

Options:
  -c|--config <file>    configuration file with the dependencies
  -d|--directory <dir>  directory in which to run the npm commands   (.)
  -e|--[no-]deep        traverse direct and peer dependencies        (false)
  -s|--[no-]save        save the arguments to the configuration file (true)
  -b|--[no-]line-break  end the configuration file with a line break (true)
  -p|--[no-]progress    enable progress output for the npm commands  (true)
  -l|--[no-]list        enable listing the extra installed packages  (true)
  -v|--[no-]verbose     enable verbose output for the npm commands   (false)
  --dry-run             only print what packages would be installed  (false)
  -V|--version          print version number
  -h|--help             print usage instructions

The default configuration file is package-updates.json in the package root and
if not found, then package.json. The file should include updateDependencies.

Examples:
$ @pkgdep/update
$ @pkgdep/update up my-dep
$ @pkgdep/update up -d test -v

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using npm test.

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Ferdinand Prantl

Licensed under the MIT license.