What is the difference between npm install and npm update?

Question

Windows

Hello,
I have the following: a project-to-project package.json containing packages for webpack.
I start a new project, copy package.json into it, run npm i without parameters. Some error will result when installing a completely random package from the list.
I run npm update - everything is ok.
But the current project is empty, even the node_modules folder doesn't exist yet. There shouldn't be a difference, but there is.
What makes them different?

Answer 1

Most likely it's the dependencies of your modules, or their versions specified in your package.json.
When you run npm i, npm tries to install exactly the versions specified in package.json.
When npm update npm installs the latest versions and overwrites your package.json in the process.