Is there a way to force npm to generate package-lock.json?

In npm 6.x and 7.x you can use

npm i --package-lock-only

According to the docs of npm v6, npm v7 or latest version:

The --package-lock-only argument will only update the package-lock.json, instead of checking node_modules and downloading dependencies.

By default, package-lock.json is updated whenever you run npm install. However, this can be disabled globally by setting package-lock=false in ~/.npmrc.

When the global package-lock=false setting is active, you can still force a project’s package-lock.json file to be updated by running:

npm install --package-lock

This command is the only surefire way of forcing a package-lock.json update.