semver caret behavior differ between npm install and update

Question

This is my package.json:

{
  "name": "pr",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "typescript": "^2.0.3"
  }
}

When I run npm install, I get version 2.0.8

⇒  npm install
pr@1.0.0 /Users/shlomitc/WebstormProjects/pr
└── typescript@2.0.8

When I run npm update I get version 2.1.1!

⇒  npm update
pr@1.0.0 /Users/shlomitc/WebstormProjects/pr
└── typescript@2.1.1

Why npm install and update behaves differently?

If this is consistently reproducible (delete `node_modules` and try again), you might want to report this to the npm issue tracker. — RyanZim, Nov 10 '16 at 16:02

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 11 '16 at 15:27

According to npm guys, this is the correct behavior, it's just not described well enough in the docs.

npm install installs the latest tagged version, currently 2.0.8

npm update installs the highest possible version, currently 2.1.1

https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/14586

semver caret behavior differ between npm install and update

1 Answers1