yarn-unlock file

because there is yarn.lock you want to unlock

Problem statement

When you install a package information about the particular versions used is saved into a lock file. This makes future installs deterministic, as it will always install the same package versions.

However, this also creates a problem - first install and later update can work differently.

• update: Basically if you already have any package matching allowed range of semver - it will be used.
• first install: latest version of packages matching sem-version will be installed

This leads into a problem when package authors might need cascade updates and package consumers might be left unprotected from being locked into obsolete versions of transitive dependnecies.

This is discussed as a feature request in yarnpkg/yarn#4986 (opened 11/2017).

when you install a package A that has a dependency on some other package B, and B fixes a security issue and creates a new version for the fix, yarn upgrade is not going to update B for you until A releases a newer version and you upgrade to it. As of writing, there is no direct way to make yarn upgrade indirect dependencies as well.

The purpose of this package is to provide a way to "unlock" indirect dependencies without wiping the whole yarn.lock

working for any yarn-based project including monorepos

Usage

Yarn.lock has its purpose and updating everything at once can lead to hard-to-debug and correct failures. This is why this package provides multiple options to handle different needs

Unlock dev dependencies

This command will update transitive dependencies created by devDependencies only. This is a safe command and you should consider running it on schedule

npx yarn-unlock-file dev
yarn # dont forget to regenerate lock file

Understanding the change

npx yarn-unlock-file dev --dry-run
# will diplay information about packages to be unlocked
npx yarn-unlock-file dev --min-level 1
# will unlock direct dev dependencies (level 1)

Unlock direct dependencies

The sibling command will update all direct dependencies. The ones used for the actual end artifact. With the proper testing in place this can be considered as safe command as well.

npx yarn-unlock-file direct
yarn # dont forget to regenerate lock file

Unlock all

This is unsafe command, as it potentially unlocks too much

npx yarn-unlock-file all
yarn # dont forget to regenerate lock file

Unlock selective

Unlocks given dependency(by glob pattern) and all dependents

# update all material-ui and deps
npx yarn-unlock-file matching "@material-ui/*"
# any types
npx yarn-unlock-file matching "@types/*"
# many react libraries. This will update them to the allowed semver interval
npx yarn-unlock-file matching "react-**"
yarn # dont forget to regenerate lock file

Note

⚠️all commands except all have min-level option configured to 2 to never affect your direct dependencies.

• Set --min-level 1 to perform more broad updates
• Set --min-level [more-than-1] to perform more secure

Extra API

Given commands also support a few extra arguments to scope down the update

--only prefix

the following command will update only material-ui packages

npx yarn-unlock-file all --only @material

levels

The following command will print dependencies separated into levels buckets

## prints first-level dependencies
npx yarn-unlock-file levels 1
## prints third-level dependencies
npx yarn-unlock-file levels 3

API

This package exposes a low level API as well But for now - lets keep in undocumented. Use CLI.

See also

• inspired by https://www.npmjs.com/package/yarn-unlock-indirect-dependencies

License

MIT