I use npm-check-updates[1] which will update the package.json file with the latest versions of each dependency.
Yeah that's the package I meant with "3rd-party packages providing such functionality", thanks for pointing it out :) ! Was wondering if there was a reason other than "because no one developed it" for such a feature not being in npm core.
`npm update --save` or `npm update --save-dev` say explicitly "save updates to `dependencies` resp. `devDependencies`", which causes duplication between dependencies and devDependencies. (Say you have a dep foo and a devDep bar and both are outdated: `npm update --save` will bork package.json with an additional incorrect dep bar, and `npm update --save-dev` will bork it with an additional incorrect devDep foo :-/ )
Am I missing something? I understand there are 3rd-party packages providing such functionality, but is there any reason to not cover this feature in npm?