--- title: npm-ls section: 1 description: List installed packages --- ### Synopsis ```bash npm ls 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@9.8.1 /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. #### `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)