[DOCS] cryptic npm view labels

[moonith]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• [X] I have searched the existing issues

This is a CLI Docs Enhancement, not another kind of Docs Enhancement.

• [X] This is a CLI Docs Enhancement.

Description of Problem

So docs say that we can extract certain info about package. eg. I can do npm view express contributors which returns a array of strings containing name and email of a contributor like so <name email> I can also do (using hidden magic labels) npm view express contributors.email to view contributors emails

What I am trying to do is extracting exact publish time of given package version. I have tried all the magic labels that come up to my mind like time, datetime, tag etc.

After digging up in the repo I have found those magic labels for contributors. https://github.com/npm/cli/blob/2953983ad5c5e830a5844be5d6d0a2b49863c05d/lib/commands/view.js#L510-L514

Unfortunately there is only a minor mention of time property in referenced file https://github.com/npm/cli/blob/2953983ad5c5e830a5844be5d6d0a2b49863c05d/lib/commands/view.js#L349-L350

following this notation in cli gives no results npm view express time.'4.17.1']

or 'no matches found:' npm view express time['4.17.1']

Potential Solution

Add info about labels to docs

Docs URL

https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v8/commands/npm-view

[fritzy]

After playing around with it, it looks like npm view express "time[4.17.1]" will work. I agree that the docs need improved.

[ljharb]

Not npm view [email protected] time?

[moonith]

It returns the key value pairs of [version]: [datetime] for all releases.