npm -h (help) and -l (usage) output does not describe all command options.

[binki]

I'm opening this issue because:

• npm is crashing.
• npm is producing an incorrect install.
• npm is doing something I don't understand.
• Other (see below for feature requests):

What's going wrong?

When I run npm -h or npm -l, I do not see an explanation of the -s flag. I expect an exhaustive list of global options including, e.g., -s and other global options which I would have to read the source code to find.

How can the CLI team reproduce the problem?

Run npm -h or npm -l and search the output for a description of -s and other global options as foudn when reading the source.

Standard CLI practice for programs which support -h as a “help” switch is to list all global flags in the help output. For example:

ohnobinki@gibby ~/npmfun $ bunzip2 -h 2>&1 | grep -e '^ *-h'
   -h --help           print this message

When I try looking up the first line of description for -s I find nothing:

ohnobinki@gibby ~/npmfun $ ./node_modules/.bin/npm -h 2>&1 | grep -e '^ *-s'

supporting information:

• npm -v prints: 4.6.1
• node -v prints: 7.0.0
• npm config get registry prints: https://registry.npmjs.org/
• Windows, OS X/macOS, or Linux?: Windows, Linux

[npm-robot]

We're closing this issue as it has gone seven days without activity and without being labeled. If we haven't even labeled in issue in seven days then we're unlikely to ever read it.

If you are still experiencing the issue that led to you opening this or this is a feature request you're still interested in then we encourage you to open a new issue. If this was a support issue, you may be better served by joining package.communty and asking your question there.

For more information about our new issue aging policies and why we've instituted them please see our blog post.

[xyleen]

Any chance this issue will be addressed? IMHO this shouldn't be closed, as this issue is still relevant (npm@5.4.1).

It would be nice to have all the npm flags documented in the npm help. My use-case: npm install -h does not explain that I can use the --no-package-lock flag.