npm dependencies version(^ ~ || > < = ) formats — Complete Guide

npm packages follow the version numbering as per semantic versioning spec. The major takeaways of this specifications are

• New package starts with the version 1.0.0 [major, minor, patch]
• Patch release versions increment the last digit 1.0.1
• Minor release versions increment the second digit and reset the last digit to zero 1.1.0
• Major release increment the first digit and reset the rest to zero 1.0.0

Usually we provide dependencies in package.json with list of packages needed for the application

Example : “lodash”: “^1.2.3”

We specify a special character before the version which relates to installation of the particular version range of the package

Caret ^

Don’t modify left-most non-zero element, include everything else

• ^1.2.3 := >=1.2.3 <2.0.0 (Excluding 2.0.0)

Major release 1 is the left most non zero here, so that should not be changed, so version ranges will be include all the patch and minor versions

• ^0.2.3 := >=0.2.3 <0.3.0 (Excluding 0.3.0)

Here Minor release is the left most non zero, so version ranges without incrementing second digits are valid, which is minor releases between that.

• ^0.0.3 := >=0.0.3 <0.0.4