In Dart and Pub, should I add pubspec.lock to my .gitignore?

dart, dart-pub

Solution

This answer has two parts, similarly to the question and answer in this question about Ruby `bundler`.

Application packages

If you are working on an application package, then you should keep the `pubspec.lock` file in your repository as a snapshot of your dependencies.

From the Pub glossary:

Application packages should check their lockfiles into source control, so that everyone working on the application and every location the application is deployed has a consistent set of dependencies.

Library packages

However, if you are working on a library package, then you should not check in the lockfile.

From the Pub glossary:

Library packages should not check their lockfile into source control, since they should support a range of dependency versions.

See also the Pub glossary entry for lockfiles

Problem

Original source