What is the difference between “npm update -g”, “npm upgrade -g”, “npm install -g npm”, and “n stable”?

Question

My npm seems out of date, so it seems I could use 4 ways to update it:

sudo npm update -g          # => npm 3.8.6
sudo npm upgrade -g         # => npm 3.8.         


        

Answer 1

What those commands do:

1. sudo npm update -g - this command updates all installed global packages to the the latest versions.
2. sudo npm upgrade -g - it's an alias for update command.
3. sudo npm install -g npm - installs the latest available version of npm package.
4. sudo npm cache clean -f && sudo npm install -g n && sudo n stable - cleans the npm cache, installs n (node version manager) and the latest available node.js and npm.

So, if you need update npm to the latest version only, use sudo npm install -g npm, if you want to update and node and npm, use sudo npm cache clean -f && sudo npm install -g n && sudo n stable.