update-notifier

What is update-notifier?

The update-notifier npm package is used to inform users when a newer version of a particular npm package is available. It is particularly useful for CLI tools to notify users to update to the latest version.

What are update-notifier's main functionalities?

Basic Usage

This feature allows you to set up a basic notifier that checks for updates to the package specified in the package.json file. If an update is available, it will notify the user.

const updateNotifier = require('update-notifier');
const pkg = require('./package.json');

const notifier = updateNotifier({ pkg });

if (notifier.update) {
  notifier.notify();
}

Custom Message

This feature allows you to customize the message that is displayed to the user when an update is available.

const updateNotifier = require('update-notifier');
const pkg = require('./package.json');

const notifier = updateNotifier({ pkg });

if (notifier.update) {
  notifier.notify({
    message: 'Update available: ' + notifier.update.latest + '. Run `npm install -g ' + pkg.name + '` to update.'
  });
}

Check Interval

This feature allows you to set the interval at which the update check is performed. In this example, the check is performed once every 24 hours.

const updateNotifier = require('update-notifier');
const pkg = require('./package.json');

const notifier = updateNotifier({ pkg, updateCheckInterval: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 }); // 1 day

if (notifier.update) {
  notifier.notify();
}

Other packages similar to update-notifier

npm-check

npm-check is a tool that checks for outdated, incorrect, and unused dependencies. It provides a more comprehensive check compared to update-notifier, as it can also identify unused packages and incorrect versions.

npm-outdated

npm-outdated is a built-in npm command that checks for outdated packages. It provides a list of all outdated packages in a project, making it more suitable for project-wide updates rather than individual package notifications.

README

update-notifier

Update notifications for your CLI app

Inform users of your package of updates in a non-intrusive way.

Contents

• Install
• Usage
• How
• API
• About
• Users

Install

npm install update-notifier

Usage

Simple

import updateNotifier from 'update-notifier';
import packageJson from './package.json' assert {type: 'json'};

updateNotifier({pkg: packageJson}).notify();

Comprehensive

import updateNotifier from 'update-notifier';
import packageJson from './package.json' assert {type: 'json'};

// Checks for available update and returns an instance
const notifier = updateNotifier({pkg: packageJson});

// Notify using the built-in convenience method
notifier.notify();

// `notifier.update` contains some useful info about the update
console.log(notifier.update);
/*
{
	latest: '1.0.1',
	current: '1.0.0',
	type: 'patch', // Possible values: latest, major, minor, patch, prerelease, build
	name: 'pageres'
}
*/

Options and custom message

const notifier = updateNotifier({
	pkg,
	updateCheckInterval: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 7 // 1 week
});

if (notifier.update) {
	console.log(`Update available: ${notifier.update.latest}`);
}

How

Whenever you initiate the update notifier and it's not within the interval threshold, it will asynchronously check with npm in the background for available updates, then persist the result. The next time the notifier is initiated, the result will be loaded into the .update property. This prevents any impact on your package startup performance. The update check is done in a unref'ed child process. This means that if you call process.exit, the check will still be performed in its own process.

The first time the user runs your app, it will check for an update, and even if an update is available, it will wait the specified updateCheckInterval before notifying the user. This is done to not be annoying to the user, but might surprise you as an implementer if you're testing whether it works. Check out example.js to quickly test out update-notifier and see how you can test that it works in your app.

API

notifier = updateNotifier(options)

Checks if there is an available update. Accepts options defined below. Returns an instance with an .update property if there is an available update, otherwise undefined.

options

Type: object

pkg

Type: object

name

Required
Type: string

version

Required
Type: string

updateCheckInterval

Type: number
Default: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 (1 day)

How often to check for updates.

shouldNotifyInNpmScript

Type: boolean
Default: false

Allows notification to be shown when running as an npm script.

distTag

Type: string
Default: 'latest'

Which dist-tag to use to find the latest version.

notifier.fetchInfo()

Check update information.

Returns an object with:

• latest (string) - Latest version.
• current (string) - Current version.
• type (string) - Type of current update. Possible values: latest, major, minor, patch, prerelease, build.
• name (string) - Package name.

notifier.notify(options?)

Convenience method to display a notification message. (See screenshot)

Only notifies if there is an update and the process is TTY.

options

Type: object

defer

Type: boolean
Default: true

Defer showing the notification to after the process has exited.

message

Type: string
Default: See above screenshot

Message that will be shown when an update is available.

Available placeholders:

• {packageName} - Package name.
• {currentVersion} - Current version.
• {latestVersion} - Latest version.
• {updateCommand} - Update command.

notifier.notify({message: 'Run `{updateCommand}` to update.'});

// Output:
// Run `npm install update-notifier-tester@1.0.0` to update.

isGlobal

Type: boolean
Default: Auto-detect

Include the -g argument in the default message's npm i recommendation. You may want to change this if your CLI package can be installed as a dependency of another project, and don't want to recommend a global installation. This option is ignored if you supply your own message (see above).

boxenOptions

Type: object
Default: {padding: 1, margin: 1, textAlignment: 'center', borderColor: 'yellow', borderStyle: 'round'} (See screenshot)

Options object that will be passed to boxen.

User settings

Users of your module have the ability to opt-out of the update notifier by changing the optOut property to true in ~/.config/configstore/update-notifier-[your-module-name].json. The path is available in notifier.config.path.

Users can also opt-out by setting the environment variable NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER with any value or by using the --no-update-notifier flag on a per run basis.

The check is also skipped automatically:

• in CI
• in unit tests (when the NODE_ENV environment variable is test)

About

The idea for this module came from the desire to apply the browser update strategy to CLI tools, where everyone is always on the latest version. We first tried automatic updating, which we discovered wasn't popular. This is the second iteration of that idea, but limited to just update notifications.

Users

There are a bunch projects using it:

• npm - Package manager for JavaScript
• Yeoman - Modern workflows for modern webapps
• AVA - Simple concurrent test runner
• XO - JavaScript happiness style linter
• Node GH - GitHub command line tool

And 2700+ more…