Difference between Caret (^) and Tilde (~) in package.json. Did you know?

The difference between a Caret and Tilde in package.json. Did you know it is simpler than it looks? and at the same time a nuance that you can easily forget?

Semantic Versioning

When working with package.json and defining a strategy for how packages are updated, I always tend to forget the meaning of the symbols, so for our own sake, I’m documenting this here :)

Let’s look at the following:

1
2
3

{
    "prettier": "^2.3.1",
}

1
2
3

{
    "prettier": "~2.3.1",
}

Both versions use Semantic Versioning, represented by the definition of MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.

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2

MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH
2    .3    .1

So according to this table:

Caret(^) allows for incremental changes of MINOR and PATCH:

Tilde(~) allows for incremental changes of PATCH only:

Feel free to save this reference for your own records.