[BUG] linked strategy: `npm ls --all` reports false UNMET DEPENDENCYs for devDeps of store packages

[manzoorwanijk]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

npm ls --all --install-strategy=linked reports devDependencies of installed packages (e.g. tap, @npmcli/eslint-config, @npmcli/template-oss) as UNMET DEPENDENCY. These are correctly omitted during install but npm ls --all reads the full package.json from the store and reports them as missing.

This affects both workspace and non-workspace projects. It does not happen with the hoisted strategy.

Expected Behavior

npm ls --all should not report devDependencies of non-root packages as UNMET DEPENDENCY. The hoisted strategy handles this correctly.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Create a simple project:

mkdir test-lsall && cd test-lsall

cat > package.json << 'EOF'
{
  "name": "test-lsall",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "dependencies": { "nopt": "^7.0.0" }
}
EOF

2. Install and run ls --all:

npm install --install-strategy=linked
npm ls --all --install-strategy=linked

3. Output:

test-lsall@1.0.0
└─┬ nopt@7.2.1 -> ./node_modules/.store/nopt@7.2.1-.../node_modules/nopt
  ├── UNMET DEPENDENCY @npmcli/eslint-config@^4.0.0
  ├── UNMET DEPENDENCY @npmcli/template-oss@4.22.0
  ├─┬ abbrev@2.0.0 -> ./node_modules/.store/abbrev@2.0.0-.../node_modules/abbrev
  │ ├── UNMET DEPENDENCY @npmcli/eslint-config@^4.0.0
  │ ├── UNMET DEPENDENCY @npmcli/template-oss@4.8.0
  │ └── UNMET DEPENDENCY tap@^16.3.0
  └── UNMET DEPENDENCY tap@^16.3.0

The UNMET DEPENDENCY entries (tap, @npmcli/eslint-config, @npmcli/template-oss) are devDependencies of nopt and abbrev that were correctly not installed.

Environment

• npm: 11.11.0
• Node.js: v22.20.0
• OS Name: macOS (Darwin 25.3.0)
• System Model Name: Mac
• npm config:

install-strategy=linked