[Bug]: No strict library versions in package.json

[Mupli]

💻

• Would you like to work on a fix?

How are you using Babel?

@babel/cli

Input code

~$ babel --version
7.18.6 (@babel/core 7.24.5)

Cannot downgrade babel and code to 7.18.6.
I package.json there ^7.18.6 This will allow minor and patch version to be updated on install.
I suggest to have strict versioning. because for example fix in core can break a client (my case).

Reason why I want to downgrade is because babel is 100x slower than previous version and throws api.cache issue.

Configuration file name

babel.config.js

Configuration

export default (api) => {
    api.cache(true);
    return {
        ignore: ["**/public/**", /node_modules/],
        presets: [ ["@babel/preset-react", {
            "runtime": "automatic"
         }]],
       
    };
};

Current and expected behavior

Current: 7.18.6 (@babel/core 7.24.5)
Expected : 7.18.6 (@babel/core 7.18.6)

Environment

linux mint;
npm -v 9.6.7
node -v v18.17.1

Possible solution

remove ^ and have more control over dependencies.

Additional context

$ sudo npm list -g

/usr/lib
+-- @babel/cli@7.18.6
+-- @babel/core@7.18.6
+-- @babel/preset-env@7.18.6
...

But still I have :
~$ babel --version
7.18.6 (@babel/core 7.24.5)

[babel-bot]

Hey @Mupli! We really appreciate you taking the time to report an issue. The collaborators on this project attempt to help as many people as possible, but we're a limited number of volunteers, so it's possible this won't be addressed swiftly.

If you need any help, or just have general Babel or JavaScript questions, we have a vibrant Slack community that typically always has someone willing to help. You can sign-up here for an invite.

[nicolo-ribaudo]

With npm you can use overrides to change the version of any transitive dependency: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v8/configuring-npm/package-json#overrides

Reason why I want to downgrade is because babel is 100x slower than previous version

Do you have a test case? It's the first time this gets reported, and I'd like to fix it.

[nicolo-ribaudo]

Also btw, babel/cli does not depend on babel/core, it only has a peer dependency.

[Mupli]

@nicolo-ribaudo hi, thx for quick answer. No I don't have test case. I run it on my project.

153 files (simple esm module files without jsx) + 3 files with jsx tags

• on 7.18.6 it was ~0.5 sec
• on 7.24... it is 21 seconds !!

my babel config should change only 3 files with jsx and rest should be copied.

[Mupli]

my command "babel app --out-dir _app"

[Mupli]

With npm you can use overrides to change the version of any transitive dependency: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v8/configuring-npm/package-json#overrides

Well I don't think I should use override in globally installed libs.

[Mupli]

Also btw, babel/cli does not depend on babel/core, it only has a peer dependency.

Doesn't that mean that updated lib can bump up version of library?
Shouldn't be the way that version 1.0.0 works exactly the same as 10 years ago? (with same libraries).

[Mupli]

I've started to use project babel cli via package.json (npm run.. babel). I could install core and cli with 7.18.6 by removing "^" from dependencies in package.json and reinstalling.

Now build takes ~1.0 sec.

You can close the issue if you want though I still don't know how to install same version for core and cli in global library.