npm install vs update - what s the difference

Question

What is the practical difference between npm install and npm update  When should I use which

User · Answer

npm install installs all modules that are listed on package json file and their dependencies   npm update updates all packages in the node modules directory and their dependencies   npm install express installs only the express module and its dependencies   npm update express updates express module  starting with npm 2 x  it doesn t update its dependencies    So updates are for when you already have the module and wish to get the new version

User · Answer

The difference between npm install and npm update handling of package versions specified in package json        name             my-project      version          1 0                                  install   update    dependencies                                          ------------------      already-installed-versionless-module                ignores    1 0  - gt   1 1       already-installed-semver-module           1 4 3     ignores    1 4 3  - gt   1 5 2       already-installed-versioned-module       3 4 1      ignores   ignores      not-yet-installed-versionless-module                installs  installs      not-yet-installed-semver-module           4 2 1     installs  installs      not-yet-installed-versioned-module       2 7 8      installs  installs         Summary  The only big difference is that an already installed module with fuzzy versioning       gets ignored by npm install gets updated by npm update   Additionally  install and update by default handle devDependencies differently   npm install will install update devDependencies unless --production flag is added npm update will ignore devDependencies unless --dev flag is added     Why use npm install at all   Because npm install does more when you look besides handling your dependencies in package json  As you can see in npm install you can       manually install node-modules set them as global  which puts them in the shell s PATH  using npm install -g  lt name gt  install certain versions described by git tags install from a git url force a reinstall with --force

User · Answer

npm update  install and update with latest node modules which are in package json   npm install  install node modules which are defined in package json without update

User · Answer

In most cases  this will install the latest version of the module published on npm   npm install express --save   or better to upgrade module to latest version use   npm install express latest --save --force   --save  Package will appear in your dependencies   More info  npm-install

User · Answer

Many distinctions have already been mentioned  Here is one more   Running npm install at the top of your source directory will run various scripts  prepublish  preinstall  install  postinstall  Depending on what these scripts do  a npm install may do considerably more work than just installing dependencies   I ve just had a use case where prepublish would call make and the Makefile was designed to fetch dependencies if the package json got updated  Calling npm install from within the Makefile would have lead to an infinite recursion  while calling npm update worked just fine  installing all dependencies so that the build could proceed even if make was called directly

[node.js] npm install vs. update - what's the difference?

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