npm-explain - Explain installed packages Synopsis npm explain <folder | specifier> alias: why Description This command will print the chain of dependencies causing a given pack- age to be installed in the current project. Positional arguments can be either folders within node_modules, or name@version-range specifiers, which will select the dependency rela- tionships to explain. For example, running npm explain glob within npm's source tree will show: glob@7.1.6 node_modules/glob glob@"^7.1.4" from the root project glob@7.1.1 dev node_modules/tacks/node_modules/glob glob@"^7.0.5" from rimraf@2.6.2 node_modules/tacks/node_modules/rimraf rimraf@"^2.6.2" from tacks@1.3.0 node_modules/tacks dev tacks@"^1.3.0" from the root project To explain just the package residing at a specific folder, pass that as the argument to the command. This can be useful when trying to figure out exactly why a given dependency is being duplicated to satisfy con- flicting version requirements within the project. $ npm explain node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up find-up@3.0.0 dev node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up find-up@"^3.0.0" from nyc@14.1.1 node_modules/nyc nyc@"^14.1.1" from tap@14.10.8 node_modules/tap dev tap@"^14.10.8" from the root project Configuration json o Default: false o Type: Boolean Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output. o 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. workspace o Default: o 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: o Workspace names o Path to a workspace directory o 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. See Also o npm help config o npm help npmrc o npm help folders o npm help ls o npm help install o npm help link o npm help prune o npm help outdated o npm help update
Please see following description for synopsis
NPM-EXPLAIN(1) NPM-EXPLAIN(1)
NAME
npm-explain - Explain installed packages
Synopsis
npm explain <folder | specifier>
alias: why
Description
This command will print the chain of dependencies causing a given pack-
age to be installed in the current project.
Positional arguments can be either folders within node_modules, or
name@version-range specifiers, which will select the dependency rela-
tionships to explain.
For example, running npm explain glob within npm's source tree will
show:
glob@7.1.6
node_modules/glob
glob@"^7.1.4" from the root project
glob@7.1.1 dev
node_modules/tacks/node_modules/glob
glob@"^7.0.5" from rimraf@2.6.2
node_modules/tacks/node_modules/rimraf
rimraf@"^2.6.2" from tacks@1.3.0
node_modules/tacks
dev tacks@"^1.3.0" from the root project
To explain just the package residing at a specific folder, pass that as
the argument to the command. This can be useful when trying to figure
out exactly why a given dependency is being duplicated to satisfy con-
flicting version requirements within the project.
$ npm explain node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up
find-up@3.0.0 dev
node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up
find-up@"^3.0.0" from nyc@14.1.1
node_modules/nyc
nyc@"^14.1.1" from tap@14.10.8
node_modules/tap
dev tap@"^14.10.8" from the root project
Configuration
json
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.
o 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.
workspace
o Default:
o 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:
o Workspace names
o Path to a workspace directory
o 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.
See Also
o npm help config
o npm help npmrc
o npm help folders
o npm help ls
o npm help install
o npm help link
o npm help prune
o npm help outdated
o npm help update
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+--------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Availability | runtime/nodejs/nodejs-18 |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Stability | Pass-thru volatile |
+---------------+--------------------------+
NOTES
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from https://github.com/nodejs/node/ar-
chive/v18.1.0.zip.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at https://github.com/nodejs/node.
April 2022 NPM-EXPLAIN(1)