Q:

How can you quickly check if you package.json file has modules that could be updated to newer versions?

How can you quickly check if you package.json file has modules that could be updated to newer versions?
For example, a quick way to check if either express or nodemailer has an available update?
{
    "name": "some_module_name"
  , "description": ""
  , "version": "0.0.3"
  , "dependencies":  {
           "express": "3.1"
         , "nodemailer" : "0.4.0"
    }
}

I read over the FAQs, but didn't see anything:
https://npmjs.org/doc/faq.html
Thanks.

A:

Yes there is an option :
npm outdated

This will list modules, with available updates. It supports syntax for specifying the module name.
According to the Documentation, the syntax is 
npm outdated [<name> [<name> ...]]

This gives you to specify the module name you wish to check exclusively, like
$ npm outdated mongoose

Note
To use this properly, you'll have to add a version number of the target module(s) with range greater than or greater than or equal. You can check node-semver, which is integrated into npm to check the syntax. 
Example
{
    "dependencies": {
        "express": "3.2.0",
        "mongoose": ">= 3.5.6",
    },
}

Will give the following result ( since today the latest mongoose version is 3.6.9 )
$ npm outdated
...
mongoose@3.6.9 node_modules/mongoose current=3.6.7
$

While if you place
{
    "dependencies": {
        "express": ">= 3.2.0",
        "mongoose": ">= 3.5.6",
    },
}

The result will be :
$ npm outdated
...
mongoose@3.6.9 node_modules/mongoose current=3.6.7
express@3.2.3 node_modules/express current=3.2.0
$

A:

there's a service like travis that checks it automatically:
https://gemnasium.com

