npm command-line interface

# npm-ls

List installed packages

## Table of contents

- Synopsis
- Description
- Note: Design Changes Pending
- Configuration

- `all`
- `json`
- `long`
- `parseable`
- `global`
- `depth`
- `omit`
- `include`
- `link`
- `package-lock-only`
- `unicode`
- `workspace`
- `workspaces`
- `include-workspace-root`
- `install-links`

- See Also

### Synopsis

    npm ls <package-spec>

    alias: list

### Description

This command will print to stdout all the versions of packages that are installed, as well as their dependencies when `--all` is specified, in a tree structure.

Note: to get a "bottoms up" view of why a given package is included in the tree at all, use `npm explain`.

Positional arguments are `name@version-range` identifiers, which will limit the results to only the paths to the packages named. Note that nested packages will also show the paths to the specified packages. For example, running `npm ls promzard` in npm's source tree will show:

    npm@10.2.4 /path/to/npm
    └─┬ init-package-json@0.0.4
      └── promzard@0.1.5

It will print out extraneous, missing, and invalid packages.

If a project specifies git urls for dependencies these are shown in parentheses after the `name@version` to make it easier for users to recognize potential forks of a project.

The tree shown is the logical dependency tree, based on package dependencies, not the physical layout of your `node_modules` folder.

When run as `ll` or `la`, it shows extended information by default.

### Note: Design Changes Pending

The `npm ls` command's output and behavior made a ton of sense when npm created a `node_modules` folder that naively nested every dependency. In such a case, the logical dependency graph and physical tree of packages on disk would be roughly identical.

With the advent of automatic install-time deduplication of dependencies in npm v3, the `ls` output was modified to display the logical dependency graph as a tree structure, since this was more useful to most users. However, without using `npm ls -l`, it became impossible to show where a package was actually installed much of the time!

With the advent of automatic installation of `peerDependencies` in npm v7, this gets even more curious, as `peerDependencies` are logically "underneath" their dependents in the dependency graph, but are always physically at or above their location on disk.

Also, in the years since npm got an `ls` command (in version 0.0.2!), dependency graphs have gotten much larger as a general rule. Therefore, in order to avoid dumping an excessive amount of content to the terminal, `npm ls` now only shows the top level dependencies, unless `--all` is provided.

A thorough re-examination of the use cases, intention, behavior, and output of this command, is currently underway. Expect significant changes to at least the default human-readable `npm ls` output in npm v8.

### Configuration

#### `all`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

When running `npm outdated` and `npm ls`, setting `--all` will show all outdated or installed packages, rather than only those directly depended upon by the current project.

#### `json`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.

- In `npm pkg set` it enables parsing set values with JSON.parse() before saving them to your `package.json`.

Not supported by all npm commands.

#### `long`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

Show extended information in `ls`, `search`, and `help-search`.

#### `parseable`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

Output parseable results from commands that write to standard output. For `npm search`, this will be tab-separated table format.

#### `global`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into the `prefix` folder instead of the current working directory. See folders for more on the differences in behavior.

- packages are installed into the `{prefix}/lib/node_modules` folder, instead of the current working directory.
- bin files are linked to `{prefix}/bin`
- man pages are linked to `{prefix}/share/man`

#### `depth`

- Default: `Infinity` if `--all` is set, otherwise `1`
- Type: null or Number

The depth to go when recursing packages for `npm ls`.

If not set, `npm ls` will show only the immediate dependencies of the root project. If `--all` is set, then npm will show all dependencies by default.

#### `omit`

- Default: 'dev' if the `NODE_ENV` environment variable is set to 'production', otherwise empty.
- Type: "dev", "optional", or "peer" (can be set multiple times)

Dependency types to omit from the installation tree on disk.

Note that these dependencies are still resolved and added to the `package-lock.json` or `npm-shrinkwrap.json` file. They are just not physically installed on disk.

If a package type appears in both the `--include` and `--omit` lists, then it will be included.

If the resulting omit list includes `'dev'`, then the `NODE_ENV` environment variable will be set to `'production'` for all lifecycle scripts.

#### `include`

- Default:
- Type: "prod", "dev", "optional", or "peer" (can be set multiple times)

Option that allows for defining which types of dependencies to install.

This is the inverse of `--omit=<type>`.

Dependency types specified in `--include` will not be omitted, regardless of the order in which omit/include are specified on the command-line.

#### `link`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

Used with `npm ls`, limiting output to only those packages that are linked.

#### `package-lock-only`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

If set to true, the current operation will only use the `package-lock.json`, ignoring `node_modules`.

For `update` this means only the `package-lock.json` will be updated, instead of checking `node_modules` and downloading dependencies.

For `list` this means the output will be based on the tree described by the `package-lock.json`, rather than the contents of `node_modules`.

#### `unicode`

- Default: false on windows, true on mac/unix systems with a unicode locale, as defined by the `LC_ALL`, `LC_CTYPE`, or `LANG` environment variables.
- Type: Boolean

When set to true, npm uses unicode characters in the tree output. When false, it uses ascii characters instead of unicode glyphs.

#### `workspace`

- Default:
- Type: String (can be set multiple times)

Enable running a command in the context of the configured workspaces of the current project while filtering by running only the workspaces defined by this configuration option.

Valid values for the `workspace` config are either:

- Workspace names
- Path to a workspace directory
- Path to a parent workspace directory (will result in selecting all workspaces within that folder)

When set for the `npm init` command, this may be set to the folder of a workspace which does not yet exist, to create the folder and set it up as a brand new workspace within the project.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

#### `workspaces`

- Default: null
- Type: null or Boolean

Set to true to run the command in the context of all configured workspaces.

Explicitly setting this to false will cause commands like `install` to ignore workspaces altogether. When not set explicitly:

- Commands that operate on the `node_modules` tree (install, update, etc.) will link workspaces into the `node_modules` folder. - Commands that do other things (test, exec, publish, etc.) will operate on the root project, unless one or more workspaces are specified in the `workspace` config.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

#### `include-workspace-root`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

Include the workspace root when workspaces are enabled for a command.

When false, specifying individual workspaces via the `workspace` config, or all workspaces via the `workspaces` flag, will cause npm to operate only on the specified workspaces, and not on the root project.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

#### `install-links`

- Default: false
- Type: Boolean

When set file: protocol dependencies will be packed and installed as regular dependencies instead of creating a symlink. This option has no effect on workspaces.

### See Also

- package spec
- npm explain
- npm config
- npmrc
- npm folders
- npm explain
- npm install
- npm link
- npm prune
- npm outdated
- npm update