What is the difference between “npm update -g”, “npm upgrade -g”, “npm install -g npm”, and “n stable”?

What those commands do:

1. sudo npm update -g – this command updates all installed global packages to the the latest versions.
2. sudo npm upgrade -g – it’s an alias for update command.
3. sudo npm install -g npm – installs the latest available version of npm package.
4. sudo npm cache clean -f && sudo npm install -g n && sudo n stable – cleans the npm cache, installs n (node version manager) and the latest available node.js and npm.

So, if you need update npm to the latest version only, use sudo npm install -g npm, if you want to update and node and npm, use sudo npm cache clean -f && sudo npm install -g n && sudo n stable.