Extract version from package.json (NPM) using bash / shell

get-npm-package-version

# Version key/value should be on his own line
PACKAGE_VERSION=$(cat package.json \
  | grep version \
  | head -1 \
  | awk -F: '{ print $2 }' \
  | sed 's/[",]//g')

echo $PACKAGE_VERSION

I like @GuyMograbi approach = THANKS!

In package.json:

"version": "0.0.1"
"scripts": {
     "version": "echo $npm_package_version"
}

In a terminal:

npm run version

I don't see it mentioned anywhere in this thread, but in case it helps the Windows version of "echo $npm_package_version" is "echo %npm_package_version%".

@tsulli Instead of making scripts that are OS dependant you can just use the fact that any version of NPM >= 7.20 can do this without any hackery: npm pkg get will get any part of the structure you want, from root and down. No args, meaning the whole tree. npm pkg get version will get you the version.

No need for sed or grep here. I solved the issue in a deploy script with

awk '/version/{gsub(/("|",)/,"",$2);print $2};' package.json

This actually captures EVERY version number in the file.

npx -c 'echo "$npm_package_version"' unfortunately doesn't work in Windows.
I only could use npx -c 'node -p "process.env.npm_package_version"'
or

npm run get:version --silent

where "get:version": "node -p \"process.env.npm_package_version\""

npm run works a bit faster than npx.

Also I do not support to call script version, because it will trigger also preversion and postversion scripts which many projects have

@fatso83 That npm pkg get version command is unreliable, strangely dependent on whatever the current folder name is.

I have a folder named desk-app the same as the name field in my package.json and it reports:

{
  "desk-app": "1.0.4220"
}

Now if I rename the current folder to desk-app2 and run the same command (npm pkg get version), I get:
"1.0.4220"
which is what I want here.
Not only does the first version introduce uncertainty in the process, but it actually changes the name of the field to the name of the app, instead of "version". This makes it usable to me. I'm still looking for a cross-platform that also works on windows.

For anyone else looking for a cross-platform solution (not reliant on Unix shell commands like grep/awk/sed) and local (without external dependencies), since it can be assumed that Node.js is installed, and it's already cross-platform for this, I just created a make_version.js file with:

const PACKAGE_VERSION = require("./package.json").version;
console.log(`export const PACKAGE_VERSION = "${PACKAGE_VERSION}";`);
console.error("package.json version:", PACKAGE_VERSION);

and added a version command to package.json:

scripts: {
    "version": "node make_version.js > src/version.js",

and then added:

    "prebuild": "npm run version",
    "prestart": "npm run version",

and it creates a new src/versions.js on every start or build. Of course this can be easily tuned in the version script to be a different location, or in the make_version.js file to output different syntax and constant name, etc.

cat package.json | jq -r '.version' works on github actions

cat package.json | jq -r '.version' works on github actions

This is the best solution!

cat package.json | jq -r '.version' works on github actions

This is the best solution!

Not the best IMO because you need to install additional software for it to work (jq)

I'm with @bmerigan, jq is not cross-platform or installed by default (and not available on Windows). This is why I ended up using that 3-line Node.js script, because it can be assumed that Node.js is installed here, and is cross-platform.

Well you're right, I should have been more precise: this is the best solution for my use case, because I'm using it in GitHub Actions, and jq is installed by default.

awk -F'"' '/"version": ".+"/{ print $4; exit; }' package.json

This solution is greatest and can be suited for a special situation:

My package.json has more than one key element with "version" string.

any example that we can wrap any of the above solutions in a sh command?
The goal for me is to extract the package.json version in a jenkinsfile.

@cmario92 my simple solution only had a dependency on Node.

It's easy to change the output node make_version.js > src/version.js to be a different language or json file or append to a jenkinsfile etc.

@appurist npm pkg get version will return different results depending on whether the project is configured inside a workspace or not.

Using your example, if the project is not in a workspace:

$ npm pkg get version

"1.0.4220"

If inside a project:

$ npm pkg get version

{
  "desk-app": "1.0.4220"
}

You can use --workspaces=false to turn off this behaviour and return a consistent result.

# If project is inside a workspace
$ npm pkg get version --workspaces=false

"1.0.4220"

---

Get the unquoted version string

If you're in a *nix-like environment (Linux, OSX, gitbash), then it's possible to use the tr utility to trim the " quote characters from the string.

Here the one-liner I use to get the unquoted version:

$ npm pkg get version --workspaces=false | tr -d \"

1.0.4220

You can assign to a variable (e.g. in a shell script):

LIB_VERSION=$(npm pkg get version --workspaces=false | tr -d \")

---

@appurist Thanks for picking up the typo, that's been updated now.

@Coridyn Thanks! That makes sense. So --workspaces=false is in fact what I was looking for. In some ways have the small bit of node.js code is simple and more stable for the long term, or at least less likely to ever be a problem unless we change it, but it's great to know how to actually use pkg get version in a consistent manner too. Thanks for that bit of info. I'll probably switch to that at some point, or at least for future projects.

I've registered the suggestion here for npm pkg get version --raw npm/cli#5508

npm pkg get version

That returns "0.1.0" unlike "version": "echo $npm_package_version"
You are chastising the answer saying it's OS dependent, but then with npm pkg get version how would you strip the quotes in an OS independent way?

BTW "version": "echo $npm_package_version" and then yarn version works in Linux AND Windows (PowerShell and even CMD)

@slavdok here is the discussion about implementing npm pkg get version --parseable. Currently is not possible with npm, that's correct.

Could I use the scripts above to get version from an absolute path of a package file ?

.ie. get version from https://gitlab.com/my-org/my-group/my-repo/-/raw/main/package.json

Could I use the scripts above to get version from an absolute path of a package file ?

.ie. get version from https://gitlab.com/my-org/my-group/my-repo/-/raw/main/package.json

You could make a curl or wget and pipe it to jq for example.

thanks @iamludal , I unfortunately dont/cant have jq in the pipeline, is there anyway I can without it ?

thanks @iamludal , I unfortunately dont/cant have jq in the pipeline, is there anyway I can without it ?

You can use grep then, something like: grep -oP '(?<="version": ")([\d\.]+)(?=")'. This is just a simple regex for X.Y.Z versions, it does not handle special versions (1.2.3-beta, 4.5.6-rc1), but you have the idea.

If you are using yarn you can use the version command to get it.

❯ yarn version --non-interactive
yarn version v1.22.19
info Current version: 4.1.0

I haven't found a nice way to get the version number appart from this ugly hack:

❯ yarn version --non-interactive | grep 'info Current version' | rev | cut -d' ' -f 1 | rev
4.1.10

A bit shorter:

yarn version --non-interactive | grep "Current version:" | awk '{ print $4 }

cat node_modules//package.json | jq -r ".version"

I think I found a less hacky way of doing this, you could use package.json internally defined environement variable nammed npm_package_version to add the following script:

{
  "name": "package",
  "version": "4.1.0",
  "scripts": {
    "app:version": "echo $npm_package_version"
  }
}

Which could then be used this way:

❯ yarn --silent app:version
4.1.0

To make sure it works on windows too, we could use npm/cross-var:

{
  "name": "package",
  "version": "4.1.0",
  "scripts": {
    "app:version": "cross-var echo $npm_package_version"
  }
}

@appurist npm pkg get version will return different results depending on whether the project is configured inside a workspace or not.

Using your example, if the project is not in a workspace:

$ npm pgk get version

"1.0.4220"

If inside a project:

$ npm pgk get version

{
  "desk-app": "1.0.4220"
}

You can use --workspaces=false to turn off this behaviour and return a consistent result.

# If project is inside a workspace
$ npm pgk get version --workspaces=false

"1.0.4220"

Please note this tip has a typo:
npm pgk get version
should be
npm pkg get version

@Coridyn Can you edit to fix the typo ("pgk" should be "pkg" everywhere)?
And thanks for that comment that we

can use --workspaces=false to turn off this behaviour and return a consistent result.

npm pkg get version --workspaces=false seems to work consistently and doesn't require even my very brief node script in order to be cross-platform. 💯

npm pkg get version --workspaces=false seems to work consistently and doesn't require even my very brief node script in order to be cross-platform. 💯

the only issue is - it's still doesn't support format without quotes, sometimes is needed to use version somewhere else in other variables and those quotes break everything