Symbols in the version field of package.json

You may have seen something like the following code before in package.json and may be puzzled about the symbols like '<>~^'.

Code:

{ "dependencies" : { "foo" : "1.0.0 - 2.9999.9999" , "bar" : ">=1.0.2 <2.1.2" , "baz" : ">1.0.2 <=2.3.4" , "boo" : "2.0.1" , "qux" : "<1.0.0 || >=2.3.1 <2.4.5 || >=2.5.2 <3.0.0" , "asd" : "http://asdf.com/asdf.tar.gz" , "til" : "~1.2" , "elf" : "~1.2.3" , "two" : "2.x" , "thr" : "3.3.x" , "lat" : "latest" , "dyl" : "file:../dyl" } }

Here are the definitions I found in https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package.json.

• version Must match version exactly
• >version Must be greater than version
• >=version etc
• <version
• <=version
• ~version "Approximately equivalent to version" See semver
• ^version "Compatible with version" See semver
• 1.2.x 1.2.0, 1.2.1, etc., but not 1.3.0
• * Matches any version
• "" (just an empty string) Same as *
• version1 - version2 Same as >=version1 <=version2.
• range1 || range2 Passes if either range1 or range2 are satisfied.