What's the use of pubspec.lock file in Flutter Project

Question

Every project this file is auto-generated, also if I am added any library to pubspec.yaml file, this file also updates and, added and shows there URL, name path, and source. but what's the main purpose of these files in the project.

Answer 1

pubspec.lock :
lock file lets you test your package against the latest compatible versions of its dependencies. For application packages, we recommend that you commit the pubspec. lock file. Saving pubspec. lock ensures that everyone working on the app uses the exact same versions

Reference of official doc

Answer 2

When you run pub get, the Pub package manager looks at pubspec.yaml and generates the pubspec.lock file. This lock file records the exact versions of the packages and their transitive dependencies that were resolved during that particular run.

It's important to have this "locking", otherwise whenever transitive dependencies update(or even main dependencies update, in case of using a caret sign), your code can break.

Consider this example

Say, if a package p in your pubspec.yaml has a dependency on another package p1 with a caret (^) version constraint, like ^1.2.3, it means that the resolved version of p1 can be any version that is backwards-compatible with the specified version range (e.g., >=1.2.3 <2.0.0).

The pubspec.lock file "locks" these resolved versions, including transitive dependencies. This means that no matter how many times you run flutter pub get, you will get the exact dependencies of the packages and their transitive dependencies

Hope that makes sense.