pnpm install --frozen-lockfile=false will not update the outdated packages about pnpm HOT 6 CLOSED

frozen-lockfile=false just means that pnpm install will not fail if the lockfile is outdated. It does not mean updating. Please use pnpm update [--latest] instead.

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Thanks for the reply but frozen-lockfile=true won't update the lock file either. So what exactly is the difference between them ?

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--frozen-lockfile only means that it will fail if the lockfile is not up-to-date with the package.json. This is important for CI and reproducibility.

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If you want to update your packages, use pnpm update.

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Thanks for the update. One of main reasons I raised my question was because 2 high score questions and answers on stackoverflow. I find the accepted answers all had some confusion.

1. pnpm equivalent command for npm ci. This question has the highest scores in SO about pnpm. The accepted answer said pnpm install --frozen-lockfile. But after reading your comments and check the pnpm document I feel they are not exactly equivalent because pnpm dectects whether it is in CI or not automatically and it is not in CI environment it will still proceed and install according to the lock file(my confusion in the first place). But npm ci does not check whether it is in CI, it just checks whether the lock file is present or not and if it is present it will install packages according to the lock file. So I feel npm ci is more like pnpm install --frozen-lockfile=false. Am I right ?

2. How to have pnpm install install everything exactly to the specs of the pnpm-lock file?. This question caused me another confusion. Because the question said

I'm using pnpm, is there anyway I can have pnpm install look at the existing pnpm-lock.yaml so I can eventually build a project that is entirely the same as a previous build I had 6 months ago?

But doesn't pnpm just work like that, i.e. always uses the lock file if present so we will get "entirely the same as a previous build I had 6 months ago". I was confused why he had this question in the first place at all.

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But after reading your comments and check the pnpm document I feel they are not exactly equivalent because pnpm dectects whether it is in CI or not automatically and it is not in CI environment it will still proceed and install according to the lock file(my confusion in the first place).

Incorrect. While pnpm install (without --frozen-lockfile) tries to detect whether the environment is a CI, pnpm install --frozen-lockfile doesn't. --frozen-lockfile always fails if lockfile is outdated or isn't present.

In short, pnpm install is equivalent to npm install (but with an extra feature to detect CI), but pnpm install --frozen-lockfile is equivalent to npm ci.

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