10 KiB
title | section | description |
---|---|---|
npm-diff | 1 | The registry diff command |
Synopsis
npm diff [...<paths>]
npm diff --diff=<pkg-name> [...<paths>]
npm diff --diff=<version-a> [--diff=<version-b>] [...<paths>]
npm diff --diff=<spec-a> [--diff=<spec-b>] [...<paths>]
npm diff [--diff-ignore-all-space] [--diff-name-only] [...<paths>]
Description
Similar to its git diff
counterpart, this command will print diff patches
of files for packages published to the npm registry.
-
npm diff --diff=<spec-a> --diff=<spec-b>
Compares two package versions using their registry specifiers, e.g:
npm diff --diff=pkg@1.0.0 --diff=pkg@^2.0.0
. It's also possible to compare across forks of any package, e.g:npm diff --diff=pkg@1.0.0 --diff=pkg-fork@1.0.0
.Any valid spec can be used, so that it's also possible to compare directories or git repositories, e.g:
npm diff --diff=pkg@latest --diff=./packages/pkg
Here's an example comparing two different versions of a package named
abbrev
from the registry:npm diff --diff=abbrev@1.1.0 --diff=abbrev@1.1.1
On success, output looks like:
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json index v1.1.0..v1.1.1 100644 --- a/package.json +++ b/package.json @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ { "name": "abbrev", - "version": "1.1.0", + "version": "1.1.1", "description": "Like ruby's abbrev module, but in js", "author": "Isaac Z. Schlueter <i@izs.me>", "main": "abbrev.js",
Given the flexible nature of npm specs, you can also target local directories or git repos just like when using
npm install
:npm diff --diff=https://github.com/npm/libnpmdiff --diff=./local-path
In the example above we can compare the contents from the package installed from the git repo at
github.com/npm/libnpmdiff
with the contents of the./local-path
that contains a valid package, such as a modified copy of the original. -
npm diff
(in a package directory, no arguments):If the package is published to the registry,
npm diff
will fetch the tarball version tagged aslatest
(this value can be configured using thetag
option) and proceed to compare the contents of files present in that tarball, with the current files in your local file system.This workflow provides a handy way for package authors to see what package-tracked files have been changed in comparison with the latest published version of that package.
-
npm diff --diff=<pkg-name>
(in a package directory):When using a single package name (with no version or tag specifier) as an argument,
npm diff
will work in a similar way tonpm-outdated
and reach for the registry to figure out what current published version of the package named<pkg-name>
will satisfy its dependent declared semver-range. Once that specific version is knownnpm diff
will print diff patches comparing the current version of<pkg-name>
found in the local file system with that specific version returned by the registry.Given a package named
abbrev
that is currently installed:npm diff --diff=abbrev
That will request from the registry its most up to date version and will print a diff output comparing the currently installed version to this newer one if the version numbers are not the same.
-
npm diff --diff=<spec-a>
(in a package directory):Similar to using only a single package name, it's also possible to declare a full registry specifier version if you wish to compare the local version of an installed package with the specific version/tag/semver-range provided in
<spec-a>
.An example: assuming
pkg@1.0.0
is installed in the currentnode_modules
folder, running:npm diff --diff=pkg@2.0.0
It will effectively be an alias to
npm diff --diff=pkg@1.0.0 --diff=pkg@2.0.0
. -
npm diff --diff=<semver-a> [--diff=<semver-b>]
(in a package directory):Using
npm diff
along with semver-valid version numbers is a shorthand to compare different versions of the current package.It needs to be run from a package directory, such that for a package named
pkg
runningnpm diff --diff=1.0.0 --diff=1.0.1
is the same as runningnpm diff --diff=pkg@1.0.0 --diff=pkg@1.0.1
.If only a single argument
<version-a>
is provided, then the current local file system is going to be compared against that version.Here's an example comparing two specific versions (published to the configured registry) of the current project directory:
npm diff --diff=1.0.0 --diff=1.1.0
Note that tag names are not valid --diff
argument values, if you wish to
compare to a published tag, you must use the pkg@tagname
syntax.
Filtering files
It's possible to also specify positional arguments using file names or globs pattern matching in order to limit the result of diff patches to only a subset of files for a given package, e.g:
npm diff --diff=pkg@2 ./lib/ CHANGELOG.md
In the example above the diff output is only going to print contents of files
located within the folder ./lib/
and changed lines of code within the
CHANGELOG.md
file.
Configuration
diff
- Default:
- Type: String (can be set multiple times)
Define arguments to compare in npm diff
.
diff-name-only
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Prints only filenames when using npm diff
.
diff-unified
- Default: 3
- Type: Number
The number of lines of context to print in npm diff
.
diff-ignore-all-space
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Ignore whitespace when comparing lines in npm diff
.
diff-no-prefix
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Do not show any source or destination prefix in npm diff
output.
Note: this causes npm diff
to ignore the --diff-src-prefix
and
--diff-dst-prefix
configs.
diff-src-prefix
- Default: "a/"
- Type: String
Source prefix to be used in npm diff
output.
diff-dst-prefix
- Default: "b/"
- Type: String
Destination prefix to be used in npm diff
output.
diff-text
- Default: false
- Type: Boolean
Treat all files as text in npm diff
.
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 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
tag
- Default: "latest"
- Type: String
If you ask npm to install a package and don't tell it a specific version, then it will install the specified tag.
Also the tag that is added to the package@version specified by the npm tag
command, if no explicit tag is given.
When used by the npm diff
command, this is the tag used to fetch the
tarball that will be compared with the local files by default.
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 thenode_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 theworkspace
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.