yarn-update-dependency

Update a yarn dependency across a project/workspace & sub-dependencies.

Usage

yu my-dependency 0.5.1          # my-dependency@~0.5.1
yu my-dependency ^0.5.1  # my-dependency@^0.5.1 (no matter if it used to be caret or tilde)
yu my-dependency ~0.5.1  # my-dependency@^0.5.1 (no matter if it used to be caret or tilde)
yu my-dependency # update to current latest version
yu --all-dependencies # update all `dependencies` to the latest version
yu --all-dev-dependencies # update all `devDependencies` to the latest version
yu -h # Output all available options

Installation

yarn global add yarn-update-dependency

What does it do?

Running this command will:

• Update the specified package to the specified version in the package.json
• If run inside of a Yarn Workspace, it will also update all package.json in all workspace packages to the same version.
• It will then remove all entries for this package from the yarn.lock file
• Finally, it will run yarn install to update the dependencies

Why do I need this?

This package solves two problems.

First, it can be annoying to keep a dependency in sync in a Yarn Workspace. You'll often want to have the same dependency of a package in all workspace packages, which requires you to manually keep this in sync everywhere. With the help of yu, the version will be the same in all workspace packages.

Second, it can be tricky to actually update a specific version in Yarn. Just updating the version in the package.json and running yarn can lead to the package being installed multiple times - e.g. if a dependency also relies on this package.

Take this structure:

• my-app
  • [email protected]
    • my-dependency-b@^2.0.0
  • my-dependency-b@~2.0.1

Now you might end up with these packages installed:

• my-app
  • [email protected]
  • [email protected]

Now, you want to update my-dependency-b to 2.1.0. The version range specified in my-dependency-a allows for that, so you might just update this like this:

• my-app
  • [email protected]
    • my-dependency-b@^2.0.0
  • my-dependency-b@~2.1.0

And run yarn again. However, this will NOT replace the previously installed version, but actually result in this:

• my-app
  • [email protected]
  • [email protected]
  • [email protected]

Which is usually not what you want. The only way to really ensure that all sub-dependencies are also updated (as far as their version ranges allow), is to remove the entry from the yarn.lock file first - which is what this package does for you.