[RRFC] Support running outdated command against a package-lock without installing

Motivation ("The Why")

Currently to run the outdated check the packages have to be installed first, this can be a comparatively slow process depending on the complexity of dependencies involved. To facilitate quicker checks particularly in a CI environment it would be useful to be able to execute the command and receive the same quality of output without having to run the install first.

Example

git clone some-node-repo
npm outdated

How

Current Behaviour

outdated does run but it gives a completely different result rendering it unusable

Package                             Current  Wanted  Latest  Location  Depended by
babel-plugin-syntax-dynamic-import  MISSING  6.18.0  6.18.0  -         api-data-test

Desired Behaviour

Package            Current  Wanted  Latest  Location                        Depended by
@babel/cli          7.17.6  7.28.6  7.28.6  node_modules/@babel/cli         api-data-test
@babel/core         7.17.8  7.29.0  7.29.0  node_modules/@babel/core        api-data-test
@babel/preset-env  7.16.11  7.29.5  7.29.5  node_modules/@babel/preset-env  api-data-test

References

• n/a

Start by examining the npm outdated command and how it uses a package-lock when dependencies are not installed. Compare the current and desired output shown here, and consider the work complete when outdated can produce the desired package versions and locations without installing first.