Find the most recent version of any given Node package by looking at every package.json file recursively in the current directory, I used this in order to detect the most recent version before downloading a new one instead of using `--prefer-offline` installation. It works offline.

findRec.js

#!/usr/bin/env node
/**
* This script finds the most recent installed version of any given Node package.
* Simple usage:
* node findRec.js vue [/path/to/projects]
*/
const fs = require('fs');
const os = require('os');
const path = require('path');

// Function to validate semver version strings
function isValidSemver(version) {
    const semverRegex = /^\d+(\.\d+){0,2}$/;
    return semverRegex.test(version);
}

// Function to recursively find package.json files
function findPackageJsons(dir, visited = new Set(), callback) {
    if (typeof callback !== 'function') {
        console.error('Callback must be a function');
        return;
    }

    try {
        if (visited.has(dir)) {
            return; // Skip if this directory has already been visited
        }
        visited.add(dir); // Mark this directory as visited

        fs.readdirSync(dir).forEach(file => {
            const filePath = path.join(dir, file);
            const stat = fs.lstatSync(filePath);  // Use lstat to get info about the link itself, not the target
            if (stat.isSymbolicLink()) {
                return; // Skip symbolic links to avoid loops
            }
            if (stat.isDirectory() && file !== 'node_modules') {
                findPackageJsons(filePath, visited, callback);
            } else if (file === 'package.json') {
                callback(filePath); // Call the callback with the path to the package.json file
            }
        });
    } catch (err) {
        if (err.code !== 'ENOENT') {
            console.error(`Error reading directory ${dir}: ${err}`);
        }
    }
}

// Function to find the most recent version of a package
function findMostRecentVersion(currentDir, packageName, callback) {
    let mostRecentVersion = null;
    let directoryOfMostRecentVersion = null; // Store the directory of the most recent version

    findPackageJsons(currentDir, new Set(), (packageJsonPath) => {
        const packageJson = require(packageJsonPath);
        const version = (packageJson.dependencies && packageJson.dependencies[packageName]) ||
                        (packageJson.devDependencies && packageJson.devDependencies[packageName]);

        if (version) {
            const cleanVersion = cleanVersionString(version);
            console.log(`mostRecent: ${mostRecentVersion}, v: ${cleanVersion}, at: ${path.dirname(packageJsonPath).replace(os.homedir(),'')}`);
            if (cleanVersion && (!mostRecentVersion || compareVersions(cleanVersion, mostRecentVersion) > 0)) {
                mostRecentVersion = cleanVersion;
                directoryOfMostRecentVersion = path.dirname(packageJsonPath); // Update the directory storing the most recent version
            }
        }
    });

    callback(mostRecentVersion, directoryOfMostRecentVersion);  // Pass the directory along with the version to the callback
}

// Removes any range specifiers from the version string
function cleanVersionString(version) {
    return version.replace(/^[^0-9]*/, '');
}

// Compare two semantic version strings, return -1, 0, or 1
function compareVersions(v1, v2) {
    const parts1 = v1.split('.').map(Number);
    const parts2 = v2.split('.').map(Number);

    for (let i = 0; i < Math.max(parts1.length, parts2.length); i++) {
        const num1 = parts1[i] || 0;
        const num2 = parts2[i] || 0;
        if (num1 > num2) return 1;
        if (num1 < num2) return -1;
    }
    return 0;
}

// Get package name from command line arguments
const packageName = process.argv[2];
const currentDir = process.argv[3]?process.argv[3]:process.cwd();

if (!packageName) {
    console.error('Please provide a package name as an argument.');
    process.exit(1);
}

// Example usage
findMostRecentVersion(currentDir, packageName, (version, directory) => {
    if (version) {
        console.log(`The most recent version of ${packageName} found is ${version} in directory ${directory}`);
    } else {
        console.log(`Package ${packageName} not found in any package.json`);
    }
});