Feature: make npm view for current project easier

[RobinKnipe]

Currently using npm view will return information about the project associated with the current working directory. This is very useful, but to use any of the extended options of the command (like [<field>[.subfield]...]) requires supplying a package name.

npm view
# information about the local project from the registry indicated by package.json

npm view <package>
# information from the registry about the specified package

npm view <package> version
# the latest version of the specified package

# possibly the same as the above for the local project, but not as friendly :(
npm view `npm pkg get name | tr -d '"'` version

Feature - consider a shorthand for the local context, e.g.

npm view - version
# uses the local package.json to work out the registry and latest published version

[wraithgar]

npm pkg is what you're looking for to query the local package.json
npm view . [attr] is what you're looking for to query information about the package defined in the local package.json

[RobinKnipe]

Oh . you say!? Cool, I guess an addition to the docs would be useful. Sadly it doesn't seem to read the publishConfig definition from the local package.json though:

"publishConfig": {
    "registry": "https://npm.pkg.github.com"
  }

npm v . version
npm ERR! code E404
npm ERR! 404 Not Found - GET https://registry.npmjs.org/@rkeu%2fserverless-health-check - Not found
npm ERR! 404 
npm ERR! 404  '@rkeu/serverless-health-check@*' is not in this registry.

[ljharb]

That's because it's a publish config, not a registry config - if you want it to do that, you should also have an .npmrc in the project that sets registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com or similar.

[RobinKnipe]

Thanks @ljharb - it's a shame though, I was trying to avoid having to use an .npmrc file, because I'd much rather have everything configured in one place through the package.json