Installing a package by version number

Version number matching in npm is powerful and flexible. The same sort of version specifiers used in package.json dependencies can also be used with the npm install command:

$ npm install package-name@tag
$ npm install package-name@version
$ npm install package-name@version-range

The last two are what they sound like. You can specify express@4.16.2 to target a precise version, or express@">4.1.0 < 5.0" to  target a range of Express V4 versions.

The version match specifiers include these choices:

• Exact version match: 1.2.3
• At least version N: >1.2.3
• Up to version N: <1.2.3
• Between two releases: >=1.2.3 <1.3.0

The @tag attribute is a symbolic name such as @latest, @stable, or @canary. The package owner assigns these symbolic names to specific version numbers, and can reassign them as desired. The exception is @latest, which is updated whenever a new release of the package is published.

For more documentation, run these commands: npm help json and npm help npm-dist-tag.