How to Check Package Version in JavaScript?

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You can access the version number from the package.json file in your Node.js application by using the require() function. This is a common method for accessing metadata like version numbers from the package definition.

Here’s how you can do it:

  1. Ensure that the package.json file is in the root directory of your Node.js project (or adjust the path accordingly in the code).
  2. Use the following code snippet to load the package.json file and access the version field:
// Load the package.json file
const packageJson = require('./package.json'); // Adjust the path if your package.json is not in the root directory

// Access the version property
const version = packageJson.version;

console.log('The version of the package is:', version);

This code snippet will read the package.json file relative to the location of the script that is being executed. If the script is in a different directory from package.json, you’ll need to adjust the path to point to the correct location.

The require() function here is used to import the JSON file as a JavaScript object, making it very simple to access any property defined within package.json, such as version.

But there are some alternatives:

Some Alternatives That May Work on Your Machine

Here are alternative methods to retrieve the version from package.json in a Node.js application:

Using fs Module to Read File Directly:

  • Read package.json using fs.readFileSync.
  • Parse the JSON string with JSON.parse.
  • Access the version field.
  const fs = require('fs');
  const packageJson = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('./package.json', 'utf8'));
  const version = packageJson.version;

Using Environment Variables during Build Time:

  • Set an environment variable based on package.json during the build/deployment process.
  • Access the version via process.env.VERSION.
  # In your build script or deployment configuration
  VERSION=$(node -p "require('./package.json').version") && export VERSION
  // In your Node.js code
  const version = process.env.VERSION;

Using Child Process to Execute Node Command:

Execute a Node.js command that reads package.json using child_process.execSync.

  const { execSync } = require('child_process');
  const version = execSync('node -p "require(\'./package.json\').version"').toString().trim();