| Server IP : 79.136.114.73 / Your IP : 18.117.114.211 Web Server : Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.5.9-1ubuntu4.29 OpenSSL/1.0.1f System : Linux b8009 3.13.0-170-generic #220-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 9 12:40:49 UTC 2019 x86_64 User : www-data ( 33) PHP Version : 5.5.9-1ubuntu4.29 Disable Function : pcntl_alarm,pcntl_fork,pcntl_waitpid,pcntl_wait,pcntl_wifexited,pcntl_wifstopped,pcntl_wifsignaled,pcntl_wexitstatus,pcntl_wtermsig,pcntl_wstopsig,pcntl_signal,pcntl_signal_dispatch,pcntl_get_last_error,pcntl_strerror,pcntl_sigprocmask,pcntl_sigwaitinfo,pcntl_sigtimedwait,pcntl_exec,pcntl_getpriority,pcntl_setpriority, MySQL : ON | cURL : ON | WGET : ON | Perl : ON | Python : ON | Sudo : ON | Pkexec : ON Directory : /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/docs/content/commands/ |
Upload File : |
---
title: npm-explain
section: 1
description: Explain installed packages
---
### Synopsis
```bash
npm explain <folder | specifier>
alias: why
```
### Description
This command will print the chain of dependencies causing a given package
to be installed in the current project.
Positional arguments can be either folders within `node_modules`, or
`name@version-range` specifiers, which will select the dependency
relationships to explain.
For example, running `npm explain glob` within npm's source tree will show:
```bash
glob@7.1.6
node_modules/glob
glob@"^7.1.4" from the root project
glob@7.1.1 dev
node_modules/tacks/node_modules/glob
glob@"^7.0.5" from rimraf@2.6.2
node_modules/tacks/node_modules/rimraf
rimraf@"^2.6.2" from tacks@1.3.0
node_modules/tacks
dev tacks@"^1.3.0" from the root project
```
To explain just the package residing at a specific folder, pass that as the
argument to the command. This can be useful when trying to figure out
exactly why a given dependency is being duplicated to satisfy conflicting
version requirements within the project.
```bash
$ npm explain node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up
find-up@3.0.0 dev
node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up
find-up@"^3.0.0" from nyc@14.1.1
node_modules/nyc
nyc@"^14.1.1" from tap@14.10.8
node_modules/tap
dev tap@"^14.10.8" from the root project
```
### Configuration
<!-- AUTOGENERATED CONFIG DESCRIPTIONS START -->
<!-- automatically generated, do not edit manually -->
#### `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.
#### `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 to selecting all of the
nested workspaces)
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.
<!-- AUTOGENERATED CONFIG DESCRIPTIONS END -->
### See Also
* [npm config](/commands/npm-config)
* [npmrc](/configuring-npm/npmrc)
* [npm folders](/configuring-npm/folders)
* [npm ls](/commands/npm-ls)
* [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)