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npm-check is a tool that checks for outdated, incorrect, and unused dependencies.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npm-outdated

npm-outdated is a built-in npm command that checks for outdated packages. It provides a list of all outdated packages in a project, making it more suitable for project-wide updates rather than individual package notifications.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

Table of Contents

• Examples
• How
• API
• About

Examples

Simple example

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

updateNotifier({packageName: pkg.name, packageVersion: pkg.version}).notify();

Comprehensive example

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

// Checks for available update and returns an instance
var notifier = updateNotifier({
	packageName: pkg.name,
	packageVersion: pkg.version
});

// 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'
}
*/

Example with settings and custom message

var notifier = updateNotifier({
	packageName: pkg.name,
	packageVersion: pkg.version,
	updateCheckInterval: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 7 // 1 week
});

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 check process 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.

API

updateNotifier(options)

Checks if there is an available update. Accepts settings defined below. Returns an object with update info if there is an available update, otherwise undefined.

options

packageName

Required
Type: string

packageVersion

Required
Type: string

updateCheckInterval

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

How often to check for updates.

callback(error, update)

Type: function

Passing a callback here will make it check for an update directly and report right away. Not recommended as you won't get the benefits explained in How.

update is equal to notifier.update

updateNotifier.notify([options])

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

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

options.defer

Type: boolean
Default: true

Defer showing the notication to after the process has exited.

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].yml. The path is available in notifier.config.path.

Users can also opt-out by setting the environment variable NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER with any value.

You could also let the user opt-out on a per run basis:

if (process.argv.indexOf('--no-update-notifier') === -1) {
	// run updateNotifier()
}

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.

There are a bunch projects using it:

• Yeoman - modern workflows for modern webapps

• Bower - a package manager for the web

• Pageres - responsive website screenshots

• Node GH - GitHub command line tool

• Hoodie CLI - Hoodie command line tool

• pullr - GitHub pull requests from the command line

• Roots - a toolkit for advanced front-end development

• Automaton - task automation tool

• Spoon.js CLI

And 100+ more...

License

BSD license and copyright Google