Confusing about how to update pnpm itself

[wewindy]

ENV:

• Windows 10 21H2 x64
• install pnpm by using iwr https://get.pnpm.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex

---

One day I want to update pnpm itself to the latest version (for example, 6.31.0 → 6.32.1), I run pnpm add -g pnpm, then everything seems OK, but after doing this I check the version again, it does not change?

pnpm -v
6.31.0

pnpm add -g pnpm
# OK!

pnpm -v
6.31.0 # not change

[Erwol]

2024 comment: the official docs now recommend using pnpm self-update: https://pnpm.io/installation#updating-pnpm

original 2022 comment: pnpm add -g pnpm should install latest available stable pnpm. You can cherry pick the version with pnpm add -g [email protected] (latest stable at the moment https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/releases).

[malgorzata-stefanowicz]

on point!!!

[pshergie]

doesn't work

[shadabairbase]

Thanks @cdaringe your comment helped me.
I am on m3(arm64) and my Node gets managed by nvm.
I ran the below command to check about the multiple pnpm installation and find out that indeed I had two installtions.

which -a pnpm
type -a pnpm

Output

/Users/bond007/.nvm/versions/node/v20.10.0/bin/pnpm
/Users/bond007/Library/pnpm/pnpm
/Users/bond007/.nvm/versions/node/v20.10.0/bin/pnpm
pnpm is /Users/bond007/.nvm/versions/node/v20.10.0/bin/pnpm
pnpm is /Users/bond007/Library/pnpm/pnpm
pnpm is /Users/bond007/.nvm/versions/node/v20.10.0/bin/pnpm

So I uninstalled the pnpm version managed by nvm

npm uninstall -g pnpm

And then I was able to get the right pnpm version.

[lukeMWI]

@Erwol Worked for me, thanks! I was going from 8.15.4 -> 9.1.4 on a Mac with the Intel chip

[Arcitec]

I agree with @cdaringe! I was using sudo corepack enable to install pnpm long ago, but this is incapable of updating pnpm. I tried using sudo corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate but it never gave me anything newer than PNPM from 2 years ago.

So I went sudo corepack disable and switched to installing PNPM via NPM instead:

sudo npm i -g pnpm

Now the chain is: System's Node/NPM packages manage my PNPM installation, and PNPM manages all my projects and all my other globally installed tools. No more problems updating PNPM itself! It's simple: sudo npm update -g pnpm :)

[yingpengsha]

npm install pnpm -g

[justingolden21]

This worked and pnpm add -g pnpm didn't.

[SSylvain1989]

work fine for me on macOS ( intel )
i was trying

pnpm add -g pnpm
Nothing to stop. No server is running for the store at ...

i was on :
pnpm -v 8.6.0
now with npm install pnpm -g

npm install pnpm -g

changed 1 package, and audited 2 packages in 3s

1 package is looking for funding
  run `npm fund` for details

found 0 vulnerabilities

pnpm -v
8.15.2

[kuldip-simform]

Only this command worked for me.

[arantebw]

In Fedora/Linux, this one worked for me:

sudo npm install -g pnpm

[douglasg14b]

This seems to result in:

npm error code EEXIST
npm error path /home/douglas/.nvm/versions/node/v20.12.2/bin/pnpm
npm error EEXIST: file already exists
npm error File exists: /home/douglas/.nvm/versions/node/v20.12.2/bin/pnpm

[yanggggjie]

try "pnpm add -g @pnpm/exe", it works for me!

[mizzcode]

thanks

[heirro]

Thanks, it's worked on my Mac M1

[dmZhan]

ENV:

• Windows 10 21H2 x64
• install pnpm by using iwr https://get.pnpm.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex

One day I want to update pnpm itself to the latest version (for example, 6.31.0 → 6.32.1), I run pnpm add -g pnpm, then everything seems OK, but after doing this I check the version again, it does not change?

pnpm -v
6.31.0

pnpm add -g pnpm
# OK!

pnpm -v
6.31.0 # not change

I used the same method to install pnpm，and i used 'iwr https://get.pnpm.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex' in my PowerShell to update pnpm, I did it.



You must use 'iwr https://get.pnpm.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex' in PowerShell to update pnpm.

[benface]

If you installed pnpm via corepack, you can do: corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate

[iobuhov]

Always updating/installing through corepack and never have troubles, the only thing to keep in mind -- if you use nvm you have to install pnpm after updating your node version

[dtinth]

The command is now:

corepack install --global pnpm

[joan17cast]

The solution for me was remove pnpm manually and reinstall. To remove manually i use the command where pnpm on the windows terminal to reveal all the locations where is installed the pnpm package and then remove manually. Once you have this done simply reinstall pnpm using this command iwr https://get.pnpm.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex and success 🎉.

[JuanAntonioV]

I have a same problem couple weeks ago, i fixed it by running npm install -g pnpm or npm install -g @pnpm/exe instead of pnpm i -g pnpm. The main things here, you cannot install or updating pnpm by pnpm it self. but you can use npm instead. I hope it help.

[supermacro]

Would be great to have a built-in command to have pnpm update. Much like bun has bun upgrade

[tgrushka]

Wow, why don't they just add:

Try pnpm i -g pnpm or npm i -g pnpm

to these instructions ("Run a script from (blah blah blah)" + having to visit that page and read through a whole bunch of scenarios is just not user friendly):

   ╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
   │                                                                 │
   │                Update available! 8.8.0 → 8.9.2.                 │
   │   Changelog: https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/releases/tag/v8.9.2   │
   │         Run a script from: https://pnpm.io/installation         │
   │                                                                 │
   │     Follow @pnpmjs for updates: https://twitter.com/pnpmjs      │
   │                                                                 │
   ╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

And yes, pnpm i -g pnpm does work on macOS if pnpm was originally installed via npm.

[Devanshukoli]

Yeah. Absolutely.

[alipalvane]

i have same problem
just go directory or path in WARN and remove pnpm.exe and again run npm install -g pnpm or pnpm install -g pnpm
its work for me

[Rednas83]

Easiest is to install pnpm with corepack
corepack enable pnpm [with adminstrator rights from any path]
corepack use pnpm@latest [to manage the pnpm package in package.json via the experimental "packageManager" from the project path]

Example of package.json
"packageManager": "[email protected]+sha256.245fe901f8e7fa8782d7f17d32b6a83995e2ae03984cb5b62b8949bfdc27c7b5"

I guess when there is an update you will need to run corepack use pnpm@latest again but perhaps there is also a way to update from package.json itself🤔

[vicary]

This is exactly what I needed, thanks a lot.

[dei8bit]

One more answer: 😋

iwr https://get.pnpm.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex

done

[zkochan]

I am adding a new command to make it easier: #8424

[patarapolw]

Terminal simply says

Update available! 9.6.0 → 9.10.0.
Changelog: https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/releases/tag/v9.10.0
Run a script from: https://pnpm.io/installation

And the website on the last line says

Updating pnpm

To update pnpm, run the self-update command:

pnpm self-update

While actually running self-update doesn't work (not yet).

> pnpm self-update
'self-update' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
 ERR_PNPM_RECURSIVE_EXEC_FIRST_FAIL  Command "self-update" not found

So, I just have to run the above command (but not in docs).

iwr https://get.pnpm.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex

Only after update that the self-update command works.

I can't remember whether I installed pnpm via iex or via corepack, but it's more probably the former.

[Ali559]

This doesn't work on macos with m1 chip:

> pnpm self-update
 ERR_PNPM_CANT_SELF_UPDATE_IN_COREPACK  You should update pnpm with corepack

[Erwol]

@Ali559 this was fixed here #8544; but to get the fix you'll need to get the latest pnpm... you will probably have to fully reinstall your pnpm.

[hoiles]

I have found out that you need to update it, using the same package that you used for the installation
For example, in my case, I tried
pnpm self-update but since my current version was 8.13, It could not be updated[only in version 9]

Since I could not remember how I installed pnpm then I check if I did it with NPM
npm ls —dept=0
to list the dependencies installed, but unfortunately, the pnpm was not there.

Then I checked homebrew

brew list

And there it was my pnpm in the outdated formulae packages 😭

I just run

brew install pnpm
brew update

And voila, I am now in 9.11 😄 . Can't wait now to have a newer version to try the self-update

[brunobely]

For others in this situation (on macOS), I checked that pnpm had not been installed with either npm or brew, so figured I probably used the install script from https://pnpm.io/installation

curl -fsSL https://get.pnpm.io/install.sh | sh -

Which worked to update it.

[TonyGravagno]

Running pnpm v9.10.0 earlier today, I used npm to update pnpm to 9.12.1. But the Windows 10 path wasn't updated even after a reboot. So the system pnpm -v continues to show 9.10.0. I'm not sure how this worked but I used pnpm self-update later today and it installed 9.12.2, but still didn't update the path. I can go to the 9.12.2 folder and execute and get the correct version:

C:\Users\tonyg\AppData\Local\pnpm.tools\pnpm\9.12.2\node_modules.pnpm\[email protected]\node_modules\pnpm\bin>node .\pnpm.cjs
Version 9.12.2 (compiled to binary; bundled Node.js v22.6.0)

Can someone provide a tip for how this should be globally enabled/updated?

Side note: "self-update" wasn't added to the usage info yet.

Thanks for this great update!

[alessandroperetti]

I had an old pnpm version.
In order to update it I followed these steps:

1. npm uninstall -g pnpm
2. npm i -g pnpm
3. pnpm --version