Get the list of outdated Composer packages

I want to get list of outdated packages that will be updated when I issue composer update. Does composer have such functionality? if no is there a way to do that (with or without composer?)

Update:

Since Composer v1.1 (May 2016) the following commands are available:

• composer outdated shows you the list of outdated packages
• composer show -l returns the complete list of packages. packages in need of update are colored red. the (still) up-2-date ones are colored green.
• both commands accept the parameter --direct to show only direct dependencies in the listing

Referencing:

https://github.com/composer/composer/issues/3771

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Composer Plugins

There are some Composer Plugins showing the list of outdated packages:

1. composer-versions-check - https://github.com/Soullivaneuh/composer-versions-check

The Composer Plugin called "composer-versions-check" shows outdated packages from last major versions after using the update command. (Latest is ..)

This plugin runs "update" first, then shows possible "upgrade" indications.

A Composer dry-run isn't supported, yet.

2. vinkla/climb - https://github.com/vinkla/climb

Climb is a "Composer version manager tool" inspired by npm-check-updates.

It shows the outdates package version and indicates "upgrades" to latest versions.

Since version 1.1 of Composer there is the composer outdated command. With composer outdated --direct only your direct dependencies are taken into account.

To complete @jens-a-koch response, get any dependency update:

composer outdated

or get only direct dependencies from your composer.json:

composer outdated -D

https://getcomposer.org/doc/03-cli.md#outdated

> outdated > > The outdated command shows a list of installed packages that have > updates available, including their current and latest versions. This > is basically an alias for composer show -lo. > > The color coding is as such: > > * green (=): Dependency is in the latest version and is up to date. > * yellow (~): Dependency has a new version available that includes backwards compatibility breaks according to semver, so upgrade when you can but it may involve work. > * red (!): Dependency has a new version that is semver-compatible and you should upgrade it. > > Options > > * --all (-a): Show all packages, not just outdated (alias for composer show -l). > * --direct (-D): Restricts the list of packages to your direct dependencies. > * --strict: Returns non-zero exit code if any package is outdated. > * --minor-only (-m): Only shows packages that have minor SemVer-compatible updates. > * --format (-f): Lets you pick between text (default) or json output format.