Semver range tester

Semantic versioning (semver) numbers releases as MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, and package managers such as npm, pnpm, Yarn and Composer use ranges to decide which versions of a dependency can be installed. Ranges like ^1.2.3 and ~1.2.3 look similar but allow very different updates. This tester checks whether specific versions satisfy a range and compares versions.

How to use it

1. Enter a range, for example ^4.17.0.
2. Enter one or more versions to test.
3. See which versions satisfy the range, and compare versions to see which is newer.

Range syntax

• Caret ^1.2.3: allows changes that do not modify the left-most non-zero digit: >=1.2.3 <2.0.0. For ^0.2.3 it means >=0.2.3 <0.3.0.
• Tilde ~1.2.3: allows patch updates: >=1.2.3 <1.3.0.
• Comparators: >=1.0.0 <2.0.0, combined with spaces (AND) or || (OR).
• X-ranges: 1.x or 1.2.*.
• Hyphen: 1.2.3 - 2.3.4 means inclusive bounds.

Examples

• ^1.2.3 matches 1.2.3, 1.9.0 and 1.99.99, but not 2.0.0.
• ~1.2.3 matches 1.2.9 but not 1.3.0.
• ^1.2.3 does not match 1.3.0-beta.1: prerelease versions only match if the range itself includes a prerelease on the same version.

Tips

• Version 0.x packages may break on minor releases, which is why caret is stricter for them.
• Lock files (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml) pin exact versions; ranges matter when the lock file is updated.
• Run npm outdated to see which updates your ranges allow.