npm-check-updates 18.2.0

on Node.js NPM

Thanks to community members for raising awareness and to @SebastianSedzik for the implementation.

See: #1547

cooldown

Usage:

ncu --cooldown [n]
ncu -c [n]

The cooldown option helps protect against supply chain attacks by requiring package versions to be published at least the given number of days before considering them for upgrade.

Note that previous stable versions will not be suggested. The package will be completely ignored if its latest published version is within the cooldown period. This is due to a limitation of the npm registry, which does not provide a way to query previous stable versions.

Example:

Let's examine how cooldown works with a package that has these versions available:

1.0.0          Released 7 days ago    (initial version)
1.1.0          Released 6 days ago    (minor update)
1.1.1          Released 5 days ago    (patch update)
1.2.0          Released 5 days ago    (minor update)
2.0.0-beta.1   Released 5 days ago    (beta release)
1.2.1          Released 4 days ago    (patch update)
1.3.0          Released 4 days ago    (minor update) [latest]
2.0.0-beta.2   Released 3 days ago    (beta release)
2.0.0-beta.3   Released 2 days ago    (beta release) [beta]

With default target (latest):

$ ncu --cooldown 5

No update will be suggested because:

• Latest version (1.3.0) is only 4 days old.
• Cooldown requires versions to be at least 5 days old
• Use --cooldown 4 or lower to allow this update

With @beta/@tag target:

$ ncu --cooldown 3 --target @beta

No update will be suggested because:

• Current beta (2.0.0-beta.3) is only 2 days old
• Cooldown requires versions to be at least 3 days old
• Use --cooldown 2 or lower to allow this update

With other targets:

$ ncu --cooldown 5 --target greatest|newest|minor|patch|semver

Each target will select the best version that is at least 5 days old:

greatest → 1.2.0        (highest version number outside cooldown)
newest   → 2.0.0-beta.1 (most recently published version outside cooldown)
minor    → 1.2.0        (highest minor version outside cooldown)
patch    → 1.1.1        (highest patch version outside cooldown)

Note for latest/tag targets:

⚠️ For packages that update frequently (e.g. daily releases), using a long cooldown period (7+ days) with the default --target latest or --target @tag may prevent all updates since new versions will be published before older ones meet the cooldown requirement. Please consider this when setting your cooldown period.