yarn upgrade a package to the latest version (yarn upgrade --latest, yarn up)

In Yarn 1, yarn upgrade is-number --latest upgrades a package to the version tagged latest, ignoring the range in package.json, and saves the new version; yarn outdated lists what is behind first. In Yarn 2 and later the command is yarn up is-number, which always resolves to the latest version and rewrites the range in package.json; yarn upgrade no longer exists there.

Yarn 1: outdated, then upgrade --latest

echo '{ "name": "app", "version": "1.0.0", "license": "MIT", "private": true }' > package.json
Y="npx --yes yarn@1"
$Y add --silent --no-progress is-number@6.0.0
$Y outdated --no-progress | grep -E "^(Package|is-number)" | sed -E 's/ +URL *$//; s/ +https:.*$//'
$Y upgrade is-number --latest --silent --no-progress
npx --yes yarn@1 list --depth=0 --pattern is-number --silent

Package   Current Wanted Latest Package Type
is-number 6.0.0   6.0.0  7.0.0  dependencies
└─ is-number@7.0.0

yarn outdated shows Current, Wanted (the newest version inside the package.json range) and Latest, and exits with code 1 when something is outdated. Without --latest, yarn upgrade pkg only moves to Wanted, which for an exact 6.0.0 means no change. The example runs Yarn through npx yarn@1; with Yarn installed, drop the npx --yes part.

Yarn 4: yarn up

echo '{ "name": "app", "version": "1.0.0", "license": "MIT", "private": true }' > package.json
touch yarn.lock
Y="npx --yes @yarnpkg/cli-dist@4"
$Y add is-number@6.0.0 > /dev/null
$Y up is-number > /dev/null
npm pkg get dependencies

{
  "is-number": "^7.0.0"
}

yarn up replaced the exact 6.0.0 with the latest release and a caret range, because it always resolves the newest version. To keep the old exact style add -E, and to move to a specific version name it: yarn up is-number@6.0.0.

Command map

Pitfalls

• Major versions. --latest and yarn up cross major versions without asking. Read the changelog, upgrade related packages together (yarn up react react-dom) and run your tests.
• yarn upgrade with no package name in Yarn 1 updates every dependency within its range and rewrites yarn.lock, which can be a large change; name the packages you mean.
• Lockfile in CI. Commit package.json and yarn.lock together; CI with --immutable or --frozen-lockfile fails otherwise.
• Resolutions win. A version forced in the resolutions field of package.json overrides what upgrade or up would choose.

How to confirm it worked

Check package.json for the new range, then yarn why pkg for the version actually installed. In Yarn 1, yarn outdated printing no package rows and exiting with 0 means nothing is left to upgrade.

FAQ