

There are various things to consider when picking a package version.

It is also good to be aware that updating to the latest available version might not always be the best option.

npm can deal with some of these but usually these will have to be manually resolved.

Version conflicts - depending on the complexity of your application and the amount of package used/installed, there might be conflicts between required package versions.Therefore, it is imperative to properly test your application, especially after making major package changes. Testing needs - it is very important to be aware that updating packages can also introduce new bugs as well as regressions in terms of performance and/or functionality.Whatever the method, this can lead to a lower final bundle size, which can speed up various parts of your CI/CD process as well as improve the user experience. Lowering build artifacts sizes - going through your packages might show you some packages that are no longer needed because of other dependency updates or have you realize a package was just not being used.Future-proofing - making it easier to make any future version updates and better future-proofing your code.Optimizations - being able to take advantage of any significant code optimizations in packages or other general improvements.Bug fixes - making available to devs any package bug fixes (they do happen).New features - making it possible to use latest js/packages features.Security updates - making your codebase more secure.We'll take a look at both as well as some considerations for picking a package version, which can help reduce the possible downsides. But, of course, there can also be some downsides. A corresponding name and version number entry are added to the dependencies field of your package.json.Įxample package.There can be many benefits to updating your packages. When you install a package without specifying a version like npm install request, npm downloads the latest version of the package to your node_modules/ folder. Watch: What is Semantic Versioning (SemVer)? Understanding package versions Introduction to the Node Package Manager (NPM).Understand how version numbers are used by npm.
