I was taught that Ionic Framework has different versions for the main framework and CLI, so I’ll introduce how to check the versions.
It started when I read Ionic 3.0 has Arrived! and thought I’d like to try Ionic 3.0.
You can check dist-tags and versions with npm info.
dist-tags: latest: ‘2.2.2’, so if you npm install without specifying a version, ionic cli version 2.2.2 will be installed.
npm info ionic
 
{ name: 'ionic',
  description: 'A tool for creating and developing Ionic Framework mobile apps.',
  'dist-tags': 
   { latest: '2.2.2',
     unzip: '1.3.1-1.alpha.0',
     serve: '1.3.12',
     server: '1.3.1-3.beta.4',
     link: '1.3.14-beta.1',
     readline: '1.3.15-beta.4',
     resources: '1.3.1-7.beta.4',
     nohooks: '1.3.18-beta.3',
     docs: '1.3.19-beta.2',
     extlib: '1.4.0-beta.7',
     'hook-hotfix': '1.3.21-beta.1',
     beta: '3.0.0-beta7',
     testing: '1.7.15-beta.3',
     livereload: '2.0.0-alpha.11',
     generate: '2.0.0-alpha.15',
     bundle: '2.0.0-alpha.17',
     quickstart: '2.0.0-alpha.20',
     'beta-test': '2.0.0-beta.20',
     test: '2.1.18',
     nightly: '2.1.18-201701110338',
     canary: '3.0.0-beta.5-alpha.c9d454fd' },
  versions: 
   [ '0.9.6',
     '0.9.8',
// Omitted in the middle
     '1.2.9',
     '1.2.10',
     ... 292 more items ],
As a side note, if you want to install by specifying a version:
npm install -g ionic@beta
or
npm install -g [email protected]
You can npm install by specifying @version_number.
To check the version of ionic cli installed after npm install, you can check the ionic command version in the terminal.
$ ionic --version
2.2.2
I was taught that after npm install -g ionic, the version of ionic-angular listed in the package.json created by ionic start is the version of the main framework.
package.json
{
  "name": "ionic-hello-world",
  "author": "Ionic Framework",
  "homepage": "http://ionicframework.com/",
  "private": true,
  "scripts": {
    "clean": "ionic-app-scripts clean",
    "build": "ionic-app-scripts build",
    "ionic:build": "ionic-app-scripts build",
    "ionic:serve": "ionic-app-scripts serve"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    /* Omitted */
    "ionic-angular": "3.0.1",
    /* Omitted */
In this example, “ionic-angular”: “3.0.1” means Ionic Framework version 3.0.1 is being used.
If you confuse the versions of Ionic main framework and CLI, you might get confused about which version you’re using.
I think it’s essential to properly understand the version of Ionic Framework you’re using when checking the official documentation, so I hope this is helpful.
That’s all from the Gemba.