NPM package versions

NPM packages have a version number which looks like 0.0.0 for example.

• The first digit specifies the major version.
• The second digit specifies the minor version.
• The third digit specifies the patch version.

A major version update may not be backward compatible and can have breaking changes that may break your codebase if its using the previous major version.
A minor version update is backward compatible and generally consists of additional functionalities or features.
A patch version is a bugfix version and is backward compatible.

Updating NPM packages

NPM packages can be updated using the

npm update

command.

To update a specific package, use for example -

npm update packagename

To update a package to a specific version, use for example -

npm update packagename@1.0.2

To update all packages in the codebase use - npm update

^ is used to specify that we should only accept minor and patch version updates.

packagename: ^1.0.0

~ is used to specify that we should only accept patch version updates.

packagename: ~1.0.0

* is used to specify that we should accept all version updates.

packagename: *1.0.0

Note - Using * and accepting all version updates is not recommended and can cause breaking changes.

Also, without specifying any of the ^ ~ or * symbols, the packages will not get updated to newer versions.