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Rajesh Kumar Yadav
Rajesh Kumar Yadav Subscriber

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Node.js : Locking modules to specific versions

By default, npm installs the latest available version of modules according to each dependencies' semantic version. This can be problematic if a module author doesn't adhere to semver and introduces breaking changes in a module update, for example.

To lock down each dependencies' version (and the versions of their dependencies, etc) to the specific version installed locally in the node_modules folder, use

npm shrinkwrap
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This will then create a npm-shrinkwrap.json alongside your package.json which lists the specific versions of dependencies

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Top comments (4)

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jamesthomson profile image
James Thomson

Hi Rajesh, how is this different/better than specifying the version when you install? e.g. npm install packagename@1.0.0

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rajeshkumaryadavdotcom profile image
Rajesh Kumar Yadav

You can use this as an alternative by defining packagename@version but the way I explained you need not have to run npm install for every package manually.

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kak_kotyavo profile image
KAK KOTYAVO!

if something is broken, you can fix it through npmjs.com/package/patch-package

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rajeshkumaryadavdotcom profile image
Rajesh Kumar Yadav

That's a good one :)