xref: /third_party/node/deps/npm/docs/content/commands/npm-ls.md

---
title: npm-ls
section: 1
description: List installed packages
---

### Synopsis

```bash
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`](/commands/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:

```bash
npm@10.5.0 /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](/configuring-npm/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](/using-npm/package-spec)
* [npm explain](/commands/npm-explain)
* [npm config](/commands/npm-config)
* [npmrc](/configuring-npm/npmrc)
* [npm folders](/configuring-npm/folders)
* [npm explain](/commands/npm-explain)
* [npm install](/commands/npm-install)
* [npm link](/commands/npm-link)
* [npm prune](/commands/npm-prune)
* [npm outdated](/commands/npm-outdated)
* [npm update](/commands/npm-update)