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RFC: Add a volta update all (or similar) command to update all installed tool binaries/packages #2095

@mochafreddo

Description

@mochafreddo

Summary

Add a Volta-wide command like volta update all (or similar) to list and update all installed tool binaries and packages at once.

Background / Motivation

Currently, Volta users have to run volta list and then manually reinstall each package at the latest version (e.g., volta install <pkg>@latest). This is inconvenient when many tools are globally installed or when maintaining a consistent environment across machines.

Example workflow today:

volta list
volta install http-server@latest
volta install typescript@latest
volta install nodemon@latest

This becomes repetitive and error-prone when managing multiple tool binaries.

Proposed UX

Example interactive flow:

> volta update all

⚡️ 3 tool binaries ready for update:
  - typescript          5.1.2  →  5.2.0
  - http-server         0.12.3 →  0.13.0
  - nodemon             2.0.21 →  2.0.22

Update now? (Y/n)

Or a non-interactive mode:

volta update all --yes

Why This Helps

  • Saves time when maintaining many global tools
  • Improves ergonomics of Volta as a unified toolchain manager
  • Reduces manual repetitive commands
  • Aligns with workflows seen in other version managers

Considerations

  • Should this update only tool binaries, or also runtimes (Node, Yarn)?
  • Should it support scoping (e.g., only packages, only runtimes)?
  • Interactive vs non-interactive modes

Related Discussion

A similar feature request was raised previously in #1440, but it appears inactive.
This issue proposes revisiting the idea with a clearer UX proposal.

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