What's the difference between tilde(~) and caret(^) in package.json?

Question

After I upgraded to latest stable node and npm, I tried npm install moment --save. It saves the entry in the package.json

Answer 1

I would like to add the official npmjs documentation as well which describes all methods for version specificity including the ones referred to in the question -

https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package.json

https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/semver#x-ranges-12x-1x-12-

• ~version "Approximately equivalent to version" See npm semver - Tilde Ranges & semver (7)
• ^version "Compatible with version" See npm semver - Caret Ranges & semver (7)
• version Must match version exactly
• >version Must be greater than version
• >=version etc
• <=version
• 1.2.x 1.2.0, 1.2.1, etc., but not 1.3.0
• http://sometarballurl (this may be the URL of a tarball which will be downloaded and installed locally
• * Matches any version
• latest Obtains latest release

The above list is not exhaustive. Other version specifiers include GitHub urls and GitHub user repo's, local paths and packages with specific npm tags