What's the difference between tilde(~) and caret(^) in package.json?

Question

After I upgraded to the latest stable node and npm, I tried npm install moment --save. It saves the entry in the package.json with the caret ^ prefix. Previously, it was a tilde ~ prefix.

1. Why are these changes made in npm?
2. What is the difference between tilde ~ and caret ^?
3. What are the advantages over others?

Answer 1

See the NPM docs and semver docs:

• ~version “Approximately equivalent to version”, will update you to all future patch versions, without incrementing the minor version. ~1.2.3 will use releases from 1.2.3 to <1.3.0.

• ^version “Compatible with version”, will update you to all future minor/patch versions, without incrementing the major version. ^2.3.4 will use releases from 2.3.4 to <3.0.0.

See Comments below for exceptions, in particular for pre-one versions, such as ^0.2.3

Answer 2

I would like to add the official npmjs documentation as well which describes all methods for version specificity including the ones referred to in the question

value	desc
~version	"Approximately equivalent to version" See npm semver - Tilde Ranges
^version	"Compatible with version" See npm semver - Caret Ranges
version	Must match version exactly
>version	Must be greater than version
>=version	etc
<version
<=version
1.2.x	1.2.0, 1.2.1, etc., but not 1.3.0
*	Matches any version
latest	Obtains latest release

The above list is not exhaustive. Other version specifiers include GitHub urls and GitHub user repo's, local paths and packages with specific npm tags

Official Docs

• npm docs > package.json > dependencies
• npm docs > semver > versions
• semver (7)