Mastering Dependabot: How to Ignore Pre-Releases and Release Candidate Versions of a Dependency

As a developer, you understand the importance of maintaining up-to-date dependencies for your projects. Dependabot is an excellent tool for automating this process, but sometimes you might encounter issues with pre-releases or release candidate versions of a dependency. In this article, we’ll explore how to instruct Dependabot to ignore these unwanted versions, ensuring your project remains stable and secure.

Why Ignore Pre-Releases and Release Candidate Versions?

Before diving into the solution, let’s quickly discuss why ignoring pre-releases and release candidate versions is essential. Pre-releases, also known as beta or alpha versions, are often unstable and may contain bugs, breaking changes, or unfinished features. Release candidate versions, on the other hand, are close to being finalized but may still have issues. Including these versions in your project can lead to:

• Unstable or broken builds
• Incompatibility with other dependencies
• Potential security vulnerabilities
• Unnecessary updates and maintenance

By ignoring pre-releases and release candidate versions, you can ensure your project stays reliable and efficient.

Understanding Dependabot’s Behavior

Before we dive into the solution, it’s essential to understand how Dependabot works. By default, Dependabot will update your dependencies to the latest version available, including pre-releases and release candidate versions. This behavior can be overridden using configuration options and version constraints.

Dependabot supports various package managers, including npm, yarn, pip, and more. For the sake of this article, we’ll focus on npm and yarn, as they are the most widely used package managers for JavaScript projects.

Ignoring Pre-Releases and Release Candidate Versions with Dependabot

To instruct Dependabot to ignore pre-releases and release candidate versions, you’ll need to configure your `dependabot.yml` file. This file is used to customize Dependabot’s behavior and specify version constraints for your dependencies.

Method 1: Using Version Constraints

The simplest way to ignore pre-releases and release candidate versions is by specifying version constraints in your `dependabot.yml` file. You can do this by adding the `version` property to the `updates` section.

updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "npm"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      - daily
    versioning:
      strategy: "lockfile-only"
    ignore:
      - "**-alpha"
      - "**-beta"
      - "**-rc"

In this example, Dependabot will ignore any versions containing the strings “alpha”, “beta”, or “rc” (common indicators of pre-releases and release candidate versions).

Method 2: Using the `allow` Property

Another approach is to use the `allow` property to specify a list of allowed versions or version ranges. This method gives you more flexibility and control over the versions Dependabot can update to.

updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "npm"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      - daily
    versioning:
      strategy: "lockfile-only"
    allow:
      - "^1.2.3"
      - ">=1.2.3 <2.0.0"

In this example, Dependabot will only update to versions that match the specified ranges or exact versions. This ensures that pre-releases and release candidate versions are ignored.

Method 3: Using a Custom Resolution Strategy

If you need more advanced control over the version resolution process, you can implement a custom resolution strategy using a JavaScript function.

updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "npm"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      - daily
    versioning:
      strategy: "custom"
      resolve-version: |
        const { versions } = require('npm-registry-fetch');
        const pkgName = 'my-dependency';
        const { latest } = versions[pkgName];
        if (latest.includes('-alpha') || latest.includes('-beta') || latest.includes('-rc')) {
          return latest.replace(/-alpha|-beta|-rc/, '');
        }
        return latest;

In this example, the custom resolution strategy checks the latest version of the dependency and removes any pre-release or release candidate identifiers. This ensures that Dependabot updates to the latest stable version.

Configuring Dependabot for Your Project

Now that you’ve learned how to ignore pre-releases and release candidate versions, let’s walk through the process of configuring Dependabot for your project.

1. Create a new file named `dependabot.yml` in the root of your project.
2. Add the necessary configuration options, such as the package ecosystem, directory, schedule, and versioning strategy.
3. Specify the version constraints or allow rules to ignore pre-releases and release candidate versions.
4. Save the file and commit the changes to your repository.
5. Enable Dependabot for your project by following the instructions for your specific Git provider (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket).

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve explored the importance of ignoring pre-releases and release candidate versions when using Dependabot to manage your project’s dependencies. We’ve also covered three methods for configuring Dependabot to achieve this: using version constraints, the `allow` property, and a custom resolution strategy.

By following these instructions and adapting them to your project’s needs, you’ll be able to maintain a stable and secure dependency graph, ensuring your project remains reliable and efficient.

Method	Description	Example
Version Constraints	Specify version constraints to ignore pre-releases and release candidate versions	ignore: ["**-alpha", "**-beta", "**-rc"]
Allow Property	Specify allowed versions or version ranges	allow: ["^1.2.3", ">=1.2.3 <2.0.0"]
Custom Resolution Strategy	Implement a custom JavaScript function to resolve versions	resolve-version: | const { versions } = require('npm-registry-fetch'); ...

Remember to adapt these examples to your project’s specific needs and adjust the version constraints or allow rules accordingly. By doing so, you’ll ensure Dependabot ignores pre-releases and release candidate versions, keeping your project stable and secure.

Happy coding, and may your dependencies always be up-to-date and stable!

Frequently Asked Question

Got questions about instructing Dependabot to ignore pre-releases or release candidate versions of a dependency? Find your answers here!